John Peterson, of Public Architecture, is coming to town on October 20th to give a talk on how pro bono design is making a difference.  His firm has been behind a national effort, call the One Percent, to mobilize architects to donate 1% of their time per year toward pro bono causes.

Recently they've published a book called the Power of Pro Bono detailing 40 project nation wide where architects have donated their time toward great causes. CAST architecture's first pro bono project, the Interbay P-Patch is featured in the book.

We joined up with the One Percent several years ago after finishing the first project for the P-Patch, and have since completed several, with more on the way. I heartily recommend public service as an excellent way for architects to use their unique skill set to improve the community.  Plus, personally, it feels great to know that you've made a difference in the lives of some of your neighbors.

Here are the details for the talk:

Wednesday, 10/20

Pan Pacific Hotel

2125 Terry Avenue, Lakefront Room

Cocktails start at 5:30, the talk starts at 6:15, with dessert and coffee afterwards.

I have been collaborating with Susan Black and Associates to formulate a vision for the expansion of the Washington Park Arboretum facilities, as part of the SR 520 replacement and the demolition of the highway ramps that currently dominate the north end of the Park.

With this project, we are proposing a " new gateway structure to orient visitors, provide space for general services and curation/collection exhibits, and fulfill many of the aims of the 2001 Master Plan.  As conceptualized, the development respects the history of the site and reclaims the altered landscape to natural, healthy conditions.  It will provide organization, orientation, and education for visitors as a means to explore the greater Arboretum.

As a gateway, the design will put visitors in the frame of mind for the study and enjoyment of the Park.  Balancing educational needs and recreation activities as functions that informally overlap and inform each other, the facility welcomes both types of visitor and enfolds them in the living greenness of the Arboretum/Lake Washington edge environment.  The building concept blends with the naturalistic organization of the site with minimal visual impact and performs as a closed loop system with regard to energy and water, using only resources collected on site.  The concept also enhances the connectivity to the adjacent neighborhood and trail system and welcomes pedestrian and bike traffic.

The buildings are gently folded into a rolling wetland rise like leaves blown in on the wind.  The roofs are gently articulated to provide shelter and solar access.  Rammed earth walls announce the gateway yet continue uninterupted through the glass to become an integral part of the ambiance of the facility.  Glass walls provide an invisible barrier to the surrounding landscape during the day.  In the evening, light from the buildings spills out onto grounds muted by the vegetation foliage.

Retaining a small remnant of the “flyover” bridge allows for the development of an elevated promenade for the establishment of a “pier garden”.  The pier would be planted in a series of linear landscapes culminating in an overlook of the southern waterway of the Mountlake Cut.  The pier garden provides the visitor a new perspective of the northern limits of the Arboretum, Foster Island and the day-lighted Arboretum Creek." (from the Concept Plan)

Ideally, the building will be designed to the standards of the Living Building Challenge.  I've anticipated about 75kW of photovoltaics on the roof, plus a ground source heat pump for building climate control, harvesting all rain water for the building's use and to irrigate the demonstration gardens.

We've only just put this out into the public sphere for comments, and I can imagine that we'll have some lively discussions about how a modern structure fits within the Olmsteadian structure of the park.  I ultimately think that the contemporary architecture will best serve the Foundation, rather than grafting high performance energy and sustainable systems onto something that is overtly historicist.   The Washington Park Arboretum can look both both into its own history and the future to chart a path for success in it's second century.

Renderings courtesy of Lambert Design Studio

Thanks, Kevin, for putting on CAST's seasonal dinner party.  As you can see, through the eyes of Stefan's youngest, Gwen, a good time was had by all.

Friday's nights Green Building Slam was a big success. The Guild packed the auditorium in the Central Library and was, dare I say, raucous?  There was a lot of energy in the room and the enthusiasm was palpable.  I wanted to highlight a couple of trends that we saw in multiple projects.

1.  Passive houses--super insulated, airtight buildings that consequently use very little energy to heat (a hair dryer or toaster would do the trick).

Projects ranged from Joe Giampietro's Mini B house , Jim Burton's Backyard Box, and Dan Whitmore's house.  There are a lot of people working on the details, and trying out innovative strategies for meeting the rigorous standards, like the .6 air changes per hour (Joe's was .58ACH and Dan's measured .41 ACH).  Here is a blog about passive houses--Existing Resources.

2.  Beyond Passive Houses specifically, there was a drive for measuring building performance using blower door tests, thermal imaging, etc.  The point was made  that the real time feedback is a great learning and teaching tool for both the designers and the craftspeople, linking the attention to detail required at all phases of construction to execute a high performance building with regards to energy usage.

3.  Waste stream minimization:

Two projects highlighted efforts to reduce construction waste: Bastyr University housing, and Walsh Construction's Salishan redevelopment.  The Salishan project was especially notable, not only for the context, an affordable housing project with upwards of 100 units, but because they put in place a system of labled dumpsters to sort all the construction waste--down to just one unrecyclable dumpster load over the project's construction.

I had a great time, first presenting the Sunset Substation Park, and second, learning about what other like minded companies are working on in our region.

The AIA's new awards program for housing, Futureshack, was this past week on Wednesday.  The best thing about the program is the attempt to engage the public in a discourse about housing, density, green building.  The awards even had a People's Choice award, based on online voting.

This year the AIA also premiered a new feature, Speed-Date-Design--7 minutes to bounce your ideas of an architect (then onto the next person).  As one of the Speed Daters, I talked with a couple interested in a multi-family development--almost a co-housing concept, plus a couple of homeowners about northwest contempory design and sustainable construction.  They picked my brain about dormers, backyard cottages, and recycled building materials. After the Speed Date session, one of the bartenders working the event asked me about getting a permit for his garage.  The informal format really helped make people who might not think that they could engage an architect feel comfortable about soliciting a little advice about building. I hope that the AIA does more of this kind of activity.

Both photos are courtesy of Andrew Buchanan--www.SubtleLightPhoto.com

I'll be presenting the Sunset Substation Park to the NW Ecobuilding Guild at their annual "green building slam," 10x10x10. It's "a high-energy introduction to ten cutting-edge sustainable building projects in and around Seattle...featuring fast-paced presentations by the region's leading green builders and delicious food and drink."

This marks our second year in a row presenting (last year, we showed off the Fremont Townhomes)!

One of my daily destinations for green design, Inhabitat, just featured our Sunset Substation Park! Just a blurb, but there is more information on the Sunset Substation blog

It was great to see a solid turnout for the opening. It was so packed I couldn't really spend time looking at the work, amongst all the starving architects jockeying for free wine, beer and food!

Come see the freshest work by a group of young architects, tonight at the AIA office downtown. We're honored to be a part of this group!

Kate and Ric have begun construction on their backyard cottage... They have been working hard the last few weeks and have enlisted the help of a few friends and colleagues along the way. A few key players have been helping guide us through the process:

• Rusty Borromeo of Borromeo Construction LLC is providing his general contractor and construction expertise
• James Jenkins of O'Brien & Company is contributing his green building knowledge and will be our Built Green Verifier  - we are aiming for 5 star Built Green certification
• Cory Fraser of LFD Structural Engineering LLC provided the calculations and engineering for our plan set

Ric has been doing a wonderful job of photographing the process and has put together a few galleries of the construction process thus far (all images in this post are © 2010 Ric Cochrane). He has also agreed to write up a blog post on the experience thus far - so stay tuned for that!

DECONSTRUCTION GALLERY An existing shed (that was a bit worse for wear) was painstakingly deconstructed and all reusable and recyclable materials were sorted and stacked

LABOR OF LOVE - THE FOUNDATION Digging in the dirt and other fun activities - the true definition of 'sweat equity!'

LUMBER FROM THE BONE-YARD Salvaged beams, columns and decking are being purchased from Bruce Borjesson of Pacific Resources