2017 + Sustainability

Our commitment to sustainable design is at the core of our design approach and our practice. We believe we have a responsibility to deliver high-performing buildings that embody sustainable design. This year, in strengthening our practice, we ended up treading some new ground in the realm of sustainability.

The Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University’s new signature building, was honored with a place on the list of the AIA COTE Top Ten Awards. The COTE (Committee on the Environment) Top Ten Awards is the industry’s best-known awards program for sustainable design excellence.

We are proud that this project has earned recognition for how it embeds the core values of public health within a highly sustainable, impeccably designed institute.

Our renovation of the Harvard Memorial Church was certified LEED Gold this year. This project, an exercise in careful and sensitive rehabilitation, was a wonderful opportunity to bring our strong practice in sustainable design to Harvard’s iconic campus. Check out the stats below to see how we made the Church greener.

66%
reduction in energy use as prior to the renovations, while adding air-conditioning systems

94%
of regularly occupied spaces have access to outside views

45%
reduction in fixture water usage

25%
reduction to the connected lighting power

92%
of the spaces included occupancy sensors for the project connected lighting load

28%
of the total building materials have been manufactured using recycled materials

We launched version 2.0 of our Glazing and Winter Comfort Tool. After collecting several months of user feedback along with studying the latest research, we developed new features and improvements for the tool. Major changes included support for the tool in all browsers, a new model for downdraft discomfort, an outdoor design temperature search capability, among others. To read about all the new updates and capabilities, click here.

The Northeastern University Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex received an AIA New York COTE Merit Award. The AIA/NY COTE Awards program, which is modeled after the nearly two-decades-old AIA COTE Top Ten Awards, aims at making sustainable design processes transparent through diverse metrics that demonstrate an innovative approach towards resiliency, local site response, passive design, water conservation, energy flow, materials and construction, as well as flexibility and adaptability. The Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex represents a major expansion of research at Northeastern University and provides a 234,000 GSF home for four interdisciplinary academic research disciplines: engineering, health sciences, basic sciences and computer science. This landmark recognition for the ISEC is a wonderful achievement for the firm, and an important new part of the ISEC’s identity as a center for forward-thinking research and collaboration.

We’re grateful for the opportunities 2017 has brought, and we’re excited for what’s on the horizon for 2018!