Making 'fire-hot'
news
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Pruett Architects has been featured in two recent news
stories - carried in print and online - about the firm's work on Memphis fire
stations.
The Commercial Appeal carried an article with two accompanying
photographs on the front page of its business section in September, with a
focus on historic firehouse No. 11, on Union Avenue in Midtown.
A week later, the Memphis Flyer also carried a story
with a photograph.
The work re-designing and updating fire stations brings a
unique set of challenges and the satisfaction is palpable when a station
reopens after the work is done.
We're proud to be helping the firefighters of
our community where they live and work. The press coverage came after our last
email newsletter blast to our friends and associates.
Read the Flyer story.
Read
The Commercial Appeal story.
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Seeing structures
as working machines
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 Jennie
Hill first became intrigued by the idea of obtaining LEED certification as an
architectural student.
"I
remember becoming aware of the impact our buildings have on the environment,"
she recalls. "A building is like a machine, working all the time. And there is
a certain responsibility to design buildings that work well for people and are
environmentally friendly."
One
eureka moment came when Jennie was introduced to the idea of "heat islands."
The term describes an effect that develops in urban areas as the infrastructure
- buildings, parking lots and other paved areas - takes over where vegetation
once thrived.
According
to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "on a hot, sunny summer day, the sun can heat dry, exposed urban
surfaces, such as roofs and pavement, to temperatures 50-90°F hotter than the surrounding
air."
Comparisons
of these urban hot spots, or heat islands, versus nearby rural areas can be
seen in satellite images.
See Examples.
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Design By
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Designing buildings by working
within a certain verdant hue
"Be green." "Go green." "Build
green." "Operate green."
Society may be in danger of the
overuse of "greening" in speech and in print as it becomes more than just
trendy to do business using sustainable, scalable models and protocols. In
fact, environmental concerns now are viewed as bottom-line issues in many
industries,
and so the jargon is just getting started.
But let's be clear. Claiming to "work
green" doesn't necessarily make design or construction environmentally
friendly. A case in point:
A
homebuilder posted a sign on a city street saying the house he was constructing
was an example of "building green." His crew then promptly removed all the
elegant old-growth trees from the lot, and graded a slope level without
apparent concern for future water flow or erosion. In truth, his "green"
quickly faded to some murky color of green-brown.
At Pruett Architects we are members
of the U.S. Green Building
Council (USGBC), and we take our membership
seriously. We know that designing new and renovated buildings in a manner that
is good for the environment is complicated, based on specific, measurable
rubrics, and can be expensive in the short-term (while saving money in energy
and other costs over time.)
The USGBC created a rating system
known as LEED for green building design, construction and
operation/maintenance. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design. LEED recognizes performance in five areas of human and ecological
health: sustainable site development and use, water savings, energy efficiency,
use of materials and indoor environmental quality. The rating system is
periodically updated and is specific to project types, including new
construction, existing structures, homes, schools and neighborhood development.
These five categories, scored for credits or
points, are added together to determine if a project has achieved a minimum of
points to be Certified, more points to reach Silver, even more points for Gold and
maximum points for Platinum.
"These measurements are what we pay
attention to in order to attain the best possible results in our work for our
clients," says our firm's principal, John Pruett.
That's especially important as the
"green movement" becomes almost a stampede.
Read more about our design
outlook: www.pruettarchitects.com
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Turning a roof line white
is only one way to be 'green'
Three members of our staff recently
attended a "green roof" seminar led at The University Club by a roofing
professional out of Los Angeles. As defined by Wikipedia, a green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and soil,
or a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. This does
not refer to roofs which are merely colored green, as with green roof shingles.
"Of course, there are various
levels of vegetative roofing," said Jennie Hill, a LEED-accredited intern
architect at Pruett Architects. "But we also considered how to build a cool
roof by using white materials instead of black." As with white versus
dark-colored t-shirts, Jennie said, white or cool roofs reflect the sun, helping cool
the building space below, and providing energy efficiencies.
Buildings can have actual green
roofs. These range from intensive vegetation -including small trees - that
provide habitable outdoor space that humans can use, to those with
lower costs and maintenance requirements, but also smaller energy savings.
Around the country city planners
and building owners and tenants are paying attention to green or planted roofs.
That's because they conserve energy, provide sustainability and minimal
environmental impact and can put emphasis on recycled components. Built well,
they can serve buildings for a long time.
While green roofs can utilize
various kinds of vegetation, the costs lie chiefly in the types and durability
of leak-proof membranes built into the structure, and a kind of engineered
soil. As Jennie points out, a green roof doesn't use topsoil purchased at a
local garden center.
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