LARGE ARRAY SOLAR PV PLANT
We provided environmental management and technical advice to a 300 MW large array solar PV plant in Boulder, City Nevada. Out team assisted with site selection, technology choices, environment and technical due diligence, and helped negotiate the lease in the Eldorado Valley to build the plant.
NEW ONCOLOGY CENTER, HACKENSACK UNIVERSITY
We assisted in a design charrette to help improve the performance of an oncology center at Hackensack University in New Jersey. Issues explored included ways to incorporate biophilic design elements such as daylight, natural views through windows, and indoor plants, all of which have been shown to improve patient recovery times in medical environments. With the goal of easing patient stress and promoting healing, the charrette and subsequent report helped educate the project team on environmental design strategies.
*Work performed in affiliation with Browning+Bannon and Cook+Fox Architects.
MOUNT DESERT ISLAND BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
The Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory (MDIBL) is an independent, nonprofit, marine research institution founded in 1898. As research capacity has grown, so too has the need for laboratory space. The construction of a new 15,000 square foot laboratory and teaching facility called for state-of-the-art research and imaging facilities as well as new meeting space and a library. The design needed to address the sensitivities of its remote location adjacent to Acadia National Park. The year-round facility also had to be seamlessly integrated into a campus that had been designed to run only as a summer research station. We assisted in an Environmental Opportunities Charrette to formulate a plan for optimizing the environmental performance of MDIBL’s new structure.
*Work performed in affiliation with Browning+Bannon and Cook+Fox Architects.
KOBUNAKI ECO-VILLAGE
We participated in a charrette to create a set of strategies related to energy performance, long-term habitation, and sustainable settlement of a new community in Omihachiman City, outside of Kyoto, Japan. Founded on the ethic of local production for local consumption, this 360-home project aims to become a community centered on agricultural and cultural stewardship. Each home will feature a kitchen garden as part of a larger “infrastructure of food” designed to buttress the community’s self-sufficiency.
The homes of Kobunaki will also feature tiles reclaimed from the recently demolished Higashi Hongwanji Temple in Kyoto. With ambitious goals such as reducing community CO2 emissions by 80% of 2000 levels, plans for Kobunaki have developed through the involvement of many stakeholders so that the project may “co-evolve like an ecosystem.”
*Work performed in affiliation with Browning+Bannon.
HAYMOUNT
We provided environmental management expertise for a New Urbanist development located on the Rappahannock River, one of the Chesapeake Bay’s most pristine tributaries and an area rich in Native American and American history. Fifty miles from Washington D.C., the development has a projected population of 9,500 people and is designed to hold 4,000 homes and 750,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, along with religious, civic, and recreational buildings. In addition to housing green buildings and homes, two-thirds of the open fields, forests, hillsides, fresh-water wetlands, and brackish wetlands that compose the 1,600-acre site are able to remain free from construction by carefully negotiating the competing demands of the development’s natural and urban environs.
*Work performed in association with the John A. Clark Company.
CALLAWAY GARDENS
For the last fifty years Callaway Gardens has been a premier travel and meeting destination in the South, owned and operated by the Ida Cason Callaway Foundation. When considering a substantial construction and renovation project, this longtime conservation organization made a commitment to sustainable operations on this13,000 acre resort composed of a botanical garden, forested preserve, golf community, and lake front resort. We provided strategic consulting for the master planning of Callaway Gardens which included existing facility and infrastructure redevelopment along with the addition of new residential communities and hotels into the existing fabric.
*Work performed in affiliation with Browning+Bannon, LLC.
THE RITZ-CARLTON CHARLOTTE
We helped conduct a charrette to explore green building strategies for a five star hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina. Designed as part of a planned expansion of the Bank of America’s headquarters complex, Ritz-Carlton wanted to create a sustainable and healthy atmosphere for their guests. By focusing efforts on back-of-house water and energy conservation and indoor air quality, this modern and environmentally responsible hotel uses 30% less energy than conventional hotels. Water usage was reduced by 35% by installing water-saving fixtures and allowing guests to opt out of the fresh daily linen service. Outside air is circulated at 60 cubic feet per minute, greatly improving the air quality for guests and staff alike. After opening its doors in October of 2009, this 188-room hotel is the first Ritz-Carlton hotel to achieve LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Corporate meeting planners across the country are looking for green locations to book events, and as a result, Charlotte Ritz-Carlton enjoys the highest occupancy rates of any Ritz-Carlton.
*Work performed in affiliation with Browning+Bannon and Cook+Fox Architects.