GSA rejoins CBE consortium

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) was one of CBE’s founding members, and recently rejoined CBE after a short hiatus. GSA focuses on creating great work environments, providing  workspaces, security, furniture, equipment, supplies, and communications. GSA currently employs 15,000 people and accounts for nearly $65 billion in goods and services contracts. GSA has been a valuable supporter of CBE, and was instrumental in the development of the CBE Occupant Survey beginning over 15 years ago. GSA’s Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings is conducting research at three recently completed new construction and major modernization projects to: (1) study the impacts of natural daylighting on human health and identify health outcomes linked to light exposure. This could have far reaching impact on sustainable lighting design as a means to achieve energy goals and enhance health and well-being, improve work effectiveness, and reduce long-term health problems; and (2) examine the integrated project delivery (IPD) process and link high performance outcomes with decisions made during the design and construction processes. This will be useful as GSA’s project teams support future projects, influence improvements to the government procurement process, and offer lessons learned for implementing integrated processes and performance contracting.

New member welcome: Yost Grube Hall Architecture

CBE would like to welcome to its industry membership Yost Grube Hall Architecture (YGH), a 50-person Portland, Oregon, firm providing architecture, interior design, and master planning services for clients in the Pacific Northwest and internationally. Founded in 1964, the firm’s work is diverse, ranging from university buildings and embassies to corporate headquarters and commercial facilities. Each of their projects share YGH’s commitment to design that is in harmony with the environment, community, client values, and user needs.

Sustainability is a core value at YGH which affects every choice they make, from how they design buildings to how they manage their own office. Their expertise in sustainability is founded on over 35 years of experience designing green building projects based on project-specific research, leading to innovative solutions. Somewhat unique for a mid-sized northwest architectural firm, YGH has a 35-year history of work in the developing world, where minimal resources are a reality. YGH projects for USAID, the US Department of State and a number of US multinational firms in developing nations of Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia have honed their understanding that the best solutions start with passive, simple, and efficient designs that utilize local resources and respond to local culture and climate.

Central Oregon Community College Science Building, Bend, OR.
Photo: C. Columbres.

As leaders in sustainable design, YGH developed the State of Oregon’s current sustainable design standards for new construction and designed the first LEED Gold buildings for the State of Oregon, the Oregon State Board of Higher Education, the California State University system, and for the US General Services Administration (GSA) Region 9. YGH also designed the first LEED Platinum higher education building for the State of Washington.

YGH was an early signatory to the AIA 2030 Commitment and remains committed to project energy and water metrics as design targeting tools. The firm is also an early supporter of Health Product Declarations and a sponsor of the International Living Future Institute. They regularly work with their clients to understand how projects are performing and to build on that knowledge through their next project together.

Joining the Center for the Built Environment was a natural addition to YGH’s arsenal, explains YGH Sustainability Director Lona Rerick, AIA, LEED AP BD+C. “YGH is a learning organization that emphasizes project-based research as the foundation for sustained design excellence. CBE membership gives us access to a proven set of post occupancy surveys, robust design tools, growing project performance databases, and invaluable opportunities for peer to peer sharing. YGH is excited to join this group of thought leaders to share what we learn with our staff, clients, consultants and other partners to enrich our collaborative process going forward.”

2013 Livable Buildings Award: Winners Announced!

UCSF Ray and Dagmar Dolby
Regeneration Medicine Building,
2013 Livable Buildings Award Winner.

We are pleased to announce the winners of CBE’s 2013 Livable Buildings Award! 

This year's award recognizes the UCSF Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building in San Francisco, CA, with CBE Partner DPR Construction on the project team.

An Honorable Mention has been given to the Morphosis Architecture Studio in Los Angeles, CA. 

Read more about the winners >>

This year marks the seventh year of the annual award, given to buildings that demonstrate exceptional performance in terms of occupant satisfaction (using CBE's Occupant Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Survey), resource efficiency, and overall design. We will issue a media release about the award soon.

Congratulations to all of our finalists and winners, as they were all great projects that demonstrate commitment to improving the built environment.

Energy Visualization in the Workplace

Experts estimate possible building energy use reductions of more than 20% as a result of making metering data visible and actionable. Find out how CBE partner Arup is doing their part to engage their San Francisco office in personal energy monitoring, and what they have learned through the process. CBE will be continuing a field study this summer with their San Francisco office, and will have results available later this year.

Read the full story on Arup's blog >>

Centerline: Winter 2013 Now Available

Check out the latest edition of Centerline, CBE's bi-annual e-magazine! You can download the PDF here: http://cbe.berkeley.edu/centerline/winter2013.pdf

This edition includes updates on many of our research projects, recent additions to the faculty, and introduces our newest consortium members.

We hope you enjoy this issue! Looking for the Centerline archive? View it here.

First New CBE Member of 2013

Mary Davidge Associates (MDA) has joined CBE's consortium. The firm consults with major technology corporations, helping them to define and implement their vision for the built environment. They bring a practical, integrated approach to developing and implementing environmental strategies for the high-performance workplace with a particular emphasis on human health. The MDA team itself has specialists with backgrounds in engineering, building sciences, knowledge management, and biology and uses innovative and technology-based solutions to achieve the goals of its clients. MDA provides consulting services during design, construction and operations, ensuring that sustainable design and operations goals are executed through an integrated process. MDA’s services include a focus on materials toxicity screening, where it has served in a pioneering role in the building industry.

Healthcare Design Software Company Latest CBE Member

Aditazz, a San Bruno-based firm, offers a complete scope of design services, using highly refined computer simulation and optimization strategies. The company has developed an integrated platform for healthcare that allows stakeholders to virtually operate a building model while still in the design stage. Their overall goal is to improve patient care through a new design approach, enabling the creation of better buildings faster, and at a lower cost than conventional delivery methods.

CBE members may remember Benjamin Welle, who participated on a panel on building information modeling (BIM) at a past CBE advisory board meeting. Ben is now Mechanical System Product Design and Development lead at Aditazz.

Aditazz's winning entry for Kaiser Permanente's Small Hospital Big Idea Competition.