The curious case of the LEED lawsuit

Concerning the Professional, Green Architecture 3 Responses »
Feb 152011

I’ve seen a lot of tweets lately about the LEED lawsuit. While I can’t speak to the veracity of the lawsuit’s claims I can and will weigh in on my own personal opinion of LEED and the USGBC.

I think LEED was incredibly important. It was a first step towards a national shift in the way developers, governments and commercial clients think about buildings and performance. Without LEED we might still be living in a world where green and white roofs would still be found mostly in Europe, where dual flush toilets and waterless urinals would be a curiosity found at Epcot but no where else in the USA, and where post-consumer recycled content percentages would still be found only on paper and not listed proudly on the resource webpage for carpets and other finishes. With all of that said, I think we have outgrown LEED.

Posted by spencer at 8:45 am Tagged with: , , , ,

LEED, the trials and tribulations of the Green Revolution

Concerning the Professional, Green Architecture, News 1 Response »
Nov 182008

I just finished reading an article on the Wall Street Journal’s site about the green building movement and the practical issues faced with training professionals and navigating an unstable and untested market. As a design profesisonal who keeps putting off his LEED exam in favor of other equally worthy endeavors, this article hit home. The problem with green building right now is that the market is so new and untested both for professionals and for the products. The article describes a situation similar to one I recently faced at work. An architect specified a Green product that ended up not being reliably available which caused delays and impacted budget. In the end litigation was reached. Fortunately, in my situation we were able to determine that the LEED point was unattainable even with the specified product, and that we were well within our target status (silver) so a non-LEED approved solution was found which allowed the budget and schedule not to be impacted. This type of problem is rare in proven markets, when was the last time you heard that concrete or brick was not available? And when they are not, an alternative product usually exists and can be used without [...]

Posted by spencer at 12:39 am Tagged with: , ,

Articles of Interest

Architectural thought, Concerning the Professional, Green Architecture, New Buildings, News, Urban Planning No Responses »
Aug 192008

Here are some links to articles that have peaked my interest in the last few days: ‘Can of ham’ to rival Foster’s Gherkin – Building What is it with Londoners and buildings that look like food? I am waiting for the Yorkshire pudding building, or the spotted dick building. FreshWater House by Chenchow Little Architects | CoolBoomThis is a nice little piece of critical regionalism. The shutter walls are really genius way of bringing operable shutters to a contemporary design style. In addition the bundle of sticks element of the architecture thoroughly responds to the beach setting. 19th century Western town layout: myth vs reality | Cyburbia – urban planning communityCyburbia has an interesting discussion on the depiction of frontier/western towns in cinema and in real life. I find the discussion of early planning and zoning and false fronts very interesting. AIA Deconstructs Green-Building Standards| News | Architectural RecordArchitectural Record has an article about the AIA’s analysis of three different green building standards: LEED 2.2, Green Globes, and SBTool 07.

Posted by spencer at 12:29 am Tagged with: ,

Home is where the LEED is

New Buildings No Responses »
Jul 172008

So Inhabitat has an article which starts off like a bad joke; an architect, a developer and a builder decide to build a LEED certified home for$100,000. And that is it, there is no punchline, because its not a joke. They are building two 1000 square foot homes for $100 a square foot; they have been working at it for over a year now and just sold their first of two homes. You can read their blog and web page at 100khouse.

Posted by spencer at 1:16 am Tagged with: , , , ,

Solar Glass

Products No Responses »
Jun 082008

So I was going last month’s Architecture Record and as an unlicensed architect working in building production (not design) I tend to spend more time and effort looking at the products advertised instead of the featured buildings. One of the products that jumped out at me is Suntech’s See Thru photovoltaic vision glazing. This product utilizes insulated glazing technology to apply a thin photovoltaic film on the interior surface of a glazing panel and can turn “clear” glass into a solar array.

Posted by spencer at 11:39 pm Tagged with: , , ,

Solar Stickers - Now by LISA FRANK!

Products No Responses »
May 132008

I have been studying for my LEED AP exam lately, so my interest was peaked when I came across this article online. Apparently, DRI Energy has come out with a product called Lumeta PowerPly which adheres directly to the roofing membrane instead of being mounted on an expensive and heavy roof structure, which is one of the prohibitive cost factors in the implementation Photovoltaic Panels. I imagine that this application will have less of a yield because it is fixed to the angle of the roof than rack mounted systems, which can be tuned to face an optimal angle or even rotate and tilt to follow the sun.What is lost in yield I imagine can be made up on roofs that would normally not be able to handle PV panels (such as curved roofs and steep pitches). In addition, I would worry that since this bonds to the roofing membrane, if there is a membrane failure the PV panels will need to be replaced as well, instead of being able to be removed and remounted in a traditional system.

Posted by spencer at 12:32 am Tagged with: , , ,

Article: D.C. Paves Way for Environmental Responsibility

News No Responses »
Apr 022008

On tuesday the DCist ran an article about the National’s Stadium being the first LEED rated stadium in the country and the general move of DC towards what may be perceived as “Green Architecture”. (Click here for the article) I feel that this article fails to clarify some key issues and understand a few things about the difference between “Green Architecture” and LEED. First, the US Green Building Council (USGBC) to quote their own website is “a 501(c)(3) non-profit community of leaders working to make green buildings accessible to everyone within a generation.” This group is not affiliated with any state government, and I feel that it bears questioning the merits of requiring new construction to comply with a private non-profit agency (as DC is doing), instead of a public agency. This smells a little to strongly of privatization for me, but thats another post for another day. Second, the LEED system is a method of ranking a building based on points for certain qualifications. This system does not weight any points higher than others; using solar panels to account for 20% of your used power is worth the same as providing showers and bike racks or choosing a site [...]

Posted by spencer at 1:07 am Tagged with: , , , , ,
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