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A Case for Rewilding
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2 ARCHITECT, The Journal of The American Institute of Architects, July/August 2023

Contents
Volume 112, number 05 July/August 2023. architect® (ISSN
1935-7001; USPS 009-880) is published monthly except
combined issues in Jan/Feb, May/June, July/Aug and Nov/Dec
by Zonda Media, 1152 15th Street NW, Suite 850, Washington,
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expressed are those of the authors or persons quoted and
Volume 112, number 05. July/August 2023. not necessarily those of The American Institute of Architects.
Reproduction in whole or in part prohibited without written
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Back to Nature: A Case for Rewilding inquiries email [email protected] or call:1-800-242-
32 Architects in the Wild 3837. For non-AIA member subscription inquiries, address
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38 Rewilding in Action dollars) write to architect, P.O. Box 3494, Northbrook, IL
60065, call 847-291-5221 or toll-free 888.269.8410 or email:
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Tech + Practice
architect® will occasionally write about companies in which
11 Next Progressives: Shin Shin Architecture its parent organization, Zonda Media, has an investment
interest. When it does, the magazine will fully disclose that
16 Carbon Positive: Land Use and Carbon relationship. PRIVACY OF MAILING LIST: Sometimes we
19 Products: 2023 Spring/Summer Product Call share our subscriber mailing list with reputable companies we
think you’ll find interesting. However, if you do not wish to be
26 Typology: The Ecology School included, please email: [email protected]

AIA Architect
47 Repaving the Road to Licensure
49 ADUs and Rental Units Continue
to Increase in Popularity
50 Containing Multitudes
54 Valley Pearls: Designing Sustainably in Suburbia
Designed by Float Architectural Research
56 Home Innovation
and Design to protest the proposed
Pacific Connector Pipeline project in
Editorial Oregon, the Haynes Inlet Portal offers
64 Architecture and Climate Philanthropy shelter for both humans and animals.
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6

Editorial Vice President Chief Operating Officer List Rentals Copyright 2023 by Zonda Media. 1152 15th
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Watch compelling videos by ARCHITECT editors in

conversation with industry thought leaders as we
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ideas in design, creativity, and practice.

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 11

Next Progressives:
Shin Shin Architecture

Edited by Andrea Timpano

As a practice, we have refocused the pandemic. I continued under the same

our mission to address issues of name even though it’s a bit misleading.
transparency and value in the profession If there are other Shins out there who
and strive to nurture equitable client, want to partner up, please reach out!
employee, and peer relationships
underlined by integrity and discipline. Most successful collaboration:
In 2022, we teamed up with arts-
First commission: education nonprofit Wide Rainbow
Our first few commissions were all to design mobile, modular bookcases
accessory dwelling units in California. for Title 1 public schools with limited
As a young office, we closely followed pandemic recovery programs in Detroit,
Firm leadership: the evolving legislation for single-family Inglewood, Calif., and the Bronx, N.Y.
Melissa Shin, AIA residences/ADUs and found that these Each installation promoted art-
units were great opportunities to build based literature, curated by Asmaa
Locations: our portfolio because they require similar Walton of the Detroit-based Black
Los Angeles and Detroit design, permitting, and construction Art Library, that was inclusive of the
processes as larger residential projects. populations served. In each city, we
Year founded: Though the office has since expanded collaborated with a local fabrication
2019 to include multifamily, retail, and team and established grassroots
mixed-use commercial spaces, we connections with small businesses and
Education: remain grounded in the strategies and independently owned, local bookshops.
M.Arch., Yale University; B.S. Mathematics, lessons of our smallest projects.
MIT; B.S. Art and Design, MIT On your bookshelf:
Defining project: “The Labyrinth of Solitude” by Octavio Paz.
Experience: Mouse House/Peach Pit ADU is an early I taught a design studio sited in Mexico
Herzog & de Meuron, Greg but formative project completed in 2020 City this past semester and became
Lynn Form, Gehry Partners in LA. The original 1923 house was split immersed in this thought-provoking piece.
in two; the front portion was converted
Firm size: into an attached ADU, and a second Design tool of choice:
Currently three employees and story was added in the back for the Physical models. Because of the instant
our furry intern, Maya main unit. This project was a logistical/ gratification of three-dimensionalizing
permitting nightmare because it was in a an idea with your hands, model-making
Firm mission: historical zone and had inherited a litany is how I fell in love with architecture
Our design philosophy centers around an of code violations from previous owners. after coming from a theoretical math
expression of our individuality through With unwanted surprises every step background. All my former architecture
themes of playfulness, curiosity, and of the way, the building was ultimately jobs had a heavy emphasis on model-
shin shin architecture

composition but is deeply reinforced by stripped down to its original 100-year-old making and fabrication, so it’s an
meaningful collaborations with clients frame, only to be built back up again. It integral part of my design thinking.
and communities. We embrace the was an amazing learning experience.
eccentricities and conversations that Special item in your studio space:
every project brings and celebrate them Firm name origin: A backgammon board. I’m an avid
through a narrative-based approach I co-founded the firm with my sister player, but none of the employees
to architecture and problem-solving. Amanda, but she left the practice during know how to play ... yet.

> To see more images of Shin Shin Architecture’s work and read an extended version of this article, visit bit.ly/ARCHShin.
12

Next Progressives:
3
Shin Shin Architecture

1–2. A gut-renovated 1923 bungalow, the Mouse House/

Peach Pit ADU in LA sports a new, second-story addition.
3–4. Located in Venice, Calif., the U.S. flagship showroom
for Cake, a Swedish electric motorcycle manufacturer,
is subdivided “through the use of reflection: glossy tile
walls, frameless glass storefronts, white-painted brick,
and a custom-colored epoxy floor coating,” according to
a project description. 5. The firm’s Demo Detroit research
project documents some of the Michigan city’s demolished 4
buildings. 6–7. As part of the Wide Rainbow project, Shin
Shin created 18 modular libraries with brightly painted
panels that “maximize personal expression and a sense of
playfulness with every configuration,” the firm says. 8. The
“No Vacancy + Four Corners” proposal “explores seven
alternative modes of homeownership by weaving small
business opportunities into an existing historical house in
Detroit’s Virginia Park district,” per a project description.
9–11. Dubbed the Fifty Fifty Fourplex, a four-unit housing
complex looks at multigenerational living and space-sharing.

1–4: eric staudenmaier; 5: shin shin architecture

13

11
9

10
6

8
6: deitch pham; 7–11: shin shin architecture
 A D V E R T I S E M E N T
ARCHITECT INTEL

School Building Graduates From Oil to

Propane Heating
A capital improvement project ushered in a more comfortable and efficient space-
and water-heating system.

Keene Central School serves about 170 Intern engineer Jacob Jacques said, “last
students in Keene Valley, N.Y. In 2019, voters winter, instead of running 180-degree water,
approved a $7.85 million capital project to [Riggins] found that most of the year, he can run
expand the K-12 school building, enhance much lower than 180 degrees, which he couldn’t
security, and upgrade infrastructure. do with the cast iron boilers before. He’s getting
Students began the 2022–23 school year through most of the season with 140-degree
with a new lab space, main office with a secure supply temperature.”
vestibule, fitness center, and a more comfortable The upgrade also included a dedicated
environment. The school district worked with the pump for the radiant zone, with electronically
Albany, N.Y.–based architectural firm CSArch for activated three-way valves for temperature
the project. The firm then collaborated with the control to prevent overheating.
mechanical, electrical, and plumbing group at AES
Northeast, in Plattsburgh, N.Y., to overhaul the UPGRADING THE WATER HEATING
facility’s aging boiler plant and other building systems. A 600 Mbh oil-fired, tankless water heater
The result is a more functional facility that provided the school’s hot water, but the kitchen
will help meet the district’s academic goals and would routinely run out of water. “I was getting
improve energy performance. calls every day for hot water,” Riggins said.
The solution: A 200-gallon indirect water
MODERNIZING THE SPACE HEATING heater with a coil drawing heat from the boilers,
Four Fulton ENDURA condensing boilers replaced two old cast
The original heating system comprised two oil- along with a thermostatic mixing valve and precise
iron units, achieving greater efficiency and comfort.
fueled cast iron boilers nearing their end. “I rarely temperature control, to distribute ample hot water
had both of them running because one of them building, and I just saw that as a nightmare one throughout the building. The indirect water heater
was usually down,” said Jake Riggins, Keene day,” said Riggins, who has a background in also lowers the temperature returning to the
Central School’s director of facilities. environmental remediation. He was glad to be condensing boilers for optimal efficiency.
Temperature control, or lack thereof, was rid of the 10,000-gallon underground oil tank. A Lochinvar Armor condensing tankless water
another issue. The school’s space heating was Riggins had three 2,000-gallon propane tanks heater adds redundancy while also being the
divided into three zones—two served by air installed in its place. facility’s primary hot-water source during the summer.
handlers and the other by in-floor radiant heat. AES Northeast specified four condensing For Riggins, the makeover of the building’s
The problem: The distribution pumps were boilers to replace the two cast iron units. The new space- and water-heating systems more than
pushing too much water past the radiant zone’s propane-fueled boilers have a maximum firing rate alleviated headaches — it created comfortable
three-way valves. That meant classrooms and of 1.5 million Btu but can run as low as 300,000 conditions and energy savings. “Our fuel
hallways were stifling during winter. Not only was Btu. That’s a 5:1 turndown ratio per boiler, which consumption is down significantly,” Riggins said.
it uncomfortable for the students, but Riggins’ means the system can modulate between high “The return on investment is already showing
night crew would have to open windows for and low outputs depending on demand. itself.” n
relief. “Some of those hallways would get up to “The new boilers, being propane-fired, are a
85 degrees,” Riggins recalled. much smaller footprint. So, we went from a two-
An upgrade was in order. To make way boiler plant arrangement with fuel oil to a two- Scan the QR code
for cleaner, more efficient heating, Riggins boiler plant arrangement with gas, which allowed to sign up for news,
recommended an oil-to-propane conversion. us to load match the building better. They’ve technologies,
Propane for space heating produces 10% fewer got a much higher turndown ratio than they had and incentives for
greenhouse gas emissions than oil. before,” said Nathan Bull, PE, principal engineer building homes
“We had 300 psi of oil running through the at AES Northeast’s building systems group. with propane.

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marketing.zondahome.com
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Carbon Positive: suburban office-park parcel is almost six

times higher than a parcel in the downtown
core. Transportation makes up a very large

Land Use and Carbon portion of overall carbon emissions, and

bringing different programs and businesses
together in the same district can reduce
text by Kira Gould the number of trips and time spent in
cars, which can have a big environmental
Too often, we talk about carbon as if most efficient when you take a holistic
impact while also improving quality of life.
buildings exist in a vacuum. Buildings are view of carbon impact per capita, including
part of built and human systems, and transportation, embodied carbon, and
What are the implications for how
emissions are associated with all aspects operational carbon. This perspective allows
we think about infill and adapting
of those contexts—people and jobs, open us to evaluate the trade-offs between
uses, especially for taking single
space, vehicle miles traveled, adjacency different types of development in terms of
uses to mixed use, for example?
of uses, and infrastructure and utilities. density, uses, open space, and urban form.
YK: One of the best ways to reduce
SOM’s Yasemin Kologlu, Intl. Assoc.
whole life carbon is to extend a building’s
AIA, and Ellen Lou, FAIA, are interrogating How do single- and mixed-use
life span. The longer buildings remain
carbon impacts in the context of building developments affect our understanding
useful, the less embodied carbon we will
uses, density, transportation, and open of the carbon calculations of
need to expend in the future to demolish
space. I talked to them about their research neighborhoods and cities?
and rebuild them. We designed Urban
projects—including Urban Sequoia and YK: As designers, we intuitively
Sequoia to be transformed over time to
the in-progress Square Mile Carbon understand that mixed-use buildings
accommodate many different uses.
Study—which explore carbon ecosystems. and districts are more efficient than
EL: If we combine adaptive reuse with
single-use districts because they create
an infill development approach, rather than
Both of these investigations offer opportunities for different kinds of people
building on undeveloped land, we can be
new insights on how we think about and professions to flourish simultaneously.
even more judicious about our collective
built form and carbon. Why are you They provide a lifestyle that so many of
carbon impact. This approach allows us to
looking at the topic in this way? us who live in cities enjoy—a lifestyle
tie into existing infrastructures and systems,
Yasemin Kologlu: The built environment that’s less dependent on cars. And they
which opens up all of the opportunities
is responsible for at least 40% of global allow buildings with different uses to
for efficiency that we’ve talked about.
carbon emissions. We believe that share energy and infrastructure, which
buildings and cities have the potential contributes to carbon efficiency at scale.
to become a solution to the emissions The Square Mile Carbon Study provides
problem, rather than a contributor. the data to validate this intuition. Kira Gould, hon. aia, is a senior fellow
The studies we’re talking about today EL: Our study shows, for instance, with Architecture 2030, and a writer and
approach this challenge in different ways. that the carbon impact per capita of a consultant through Kira Gould Connect.
Urban Sequoia started with a concept
for a single building and a question:
How can we reduce the building’s
carbon impact, while integrating
carbon-absorbing materials? The result
is a building design that captures more
carbon than it emits. Expanding this
approach to a city district, we can make
an exponential leap in carbon absorption.
Ellen Lou: The Square Mile Carbon
Study examines carbon emissions at a
regional scale. We analyzed six different
1-square-mile parcels of land in the San
Francisco Bay Area, each representing
a typical development pattern—from
the high-density, mixed-use downtown
core to the single-use suburbs on the
SOM

periphery. The goal is to understand which A rendering of SOM’s Urban Sequoia project, which is designed to capture more carbon
development and land-use patterns are than it emits.

> To read an extended version of this piece and more articles by Architecture 2030, visit bit.ly/ARcp2030.
It’s time for more than talk. Through our
Planet Passionate program, Kingspan is
driving energy and carbon out of our global
business operations and supply chain, as
well as increasing our recycling of rainwater
and waste, while also accelerating our
participation in the circular economy.

LEARN HOW WE’RE

WALKING THE TALK
 19

PRODUCTS 2023 Spring/Summer Product Call

Selected from more than 200

submissions to ARCHITECT’s
Spring/Summer product call,
these 22 recently released
standouts represent innovations
in lighting, textiles, smart
appliances, and more.

By Andrea Timpano and Kyle Troutman

20

Solatube International

PRODUCTS Spring/Summer 2023

SolaMaster Round
Ceiling Fixtures
A newcomer to Solatube’s
SolaMaster series, these
low-profile ceiling fixtures
sport customizable lens patterns
to create an array of visual
effects. The lights—suited
for drop ceilings and
other applications—also
work hard to minimize
glare. solatube.com

Trex Transcend Lineage

Composite Decking
Available in four colors, Transcend
Lineage composite decking from
Virginia-based Trex is made almost
exclusively from recycled materials.
Plus, the low-maintenance, wood-
look boards are specially engineered
to stay cool on hot days—a
bonus for bare feet. trex.com

Cosentino Dekton Pietra Kode Collection

The brainchild of architect (and frequent Cosentino
collaborator) Daniel Germani, the Pietra Kode
Collection draws creative influence from ancient
Italian stone. Part of the brand’s carbon-neutral
Dekton line, the easy-to-clean, large-format
slabs work for everything from countertops
to flooring. cosentino.com

Duravit Zencha Sink

Designtex Silicone Symphony Collection Designer Sebastian Herkner looked
The cheerful, rainbow-hued fabrics in to classic Japanese tea bowls
Designtex’s Silicone Symphony Collection are as while dreaming up this ceramic
easy on the environment as they are on the eyes. sink, the result of a yearslong
Made from 100% silicone, the low-VOC textiles collaboration with Duravit’s
eschew PVC and chemicals while naturally repelling production team. Available in four
bacteria, mold, and mildew. designtex.com colors, the deep, above-counter
basin can be outfitted with an
optional faucet deck. duravit.us
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 21

NanaWall Systems Generation 4 Bradley Corp. WashBar

Folding Glass Walls Top-Fill, Multi-Feed
Designed for both commercial and Soap System
residential settings, NanaWall’s Ideal for commercial
customizable Generation 4 restrooms, this
line comprises eight models industrious addition to Bradley’s
with various sill, hardware, and product line doles out soap to as
material options. A Gothic- many as three WashBar dispensers at
arch roller system ensures a one time. The system is also equipped
simple user experience, while a with a handy LED indicator, which alerts users to
new thermal-break design boosts low-soap (and low-battery) levels. bradleycorp.com
energy efficiency. nanawall.com

Landscape Forms Mega

Max Classic Parasol
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product—available in a variety of canopy
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75 mph gusts with an in-ground
mount. landscapeforms.com

BŌK Modern Nail-on Sunshades Kohler Numi 2.0 Smart Toilet

Affixed with a light-gauge metal This water-efficient smart toilet offers
bracket to create a close, waterproof a personalized hygienic experience
fit, these sunshades offer functionality that includes an automatic flush,
and decoration. Choose from styles in a dryer function, a heated seat,
aluminum or Cor-ten steel. bokmodern.com and a Kohler smartphone app with
various controls. Numi 2.0’s self-
cleaning function relies on UV light
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keep its bowl clean. And, there is
an emergency flush button for use
during power outages. kohler.com

Delta Millworks x Lunawood

ThermoWood Cladding
With the climate crisis nudging
manufacturers to create more
eco-minded options, Austin, Texas–
based Delta Millworks and Finnish
company Lunawood collaborated
to produce this chemical-free,
sustainable wood cladding suited
for interior, exterior, and landscape
environments. deltamillworks.com
22

HBF x Alda Ly Architecture

PRODUCTS Spring/Summer 2023

Bao Collection
A play on the Chinese homonym
for bag, bun, precious, and
baby, Bao is the name of
a collection of sculptural
seats from HBF and AAPI-
women-owned firm Alda Ly
Architecture. Available in four
styles—small round, medium
round, stacking round, and
large half round—these chairs
prioritize comfort. hbf.com

3form Flare Collection

With Flare, 3form took a more
understated approach to
incorporating metallic aesthetics
into its finish and surface offerings
for interior commercial projects.
The brand added small, metallic
flakes onto its Varia resin panels
for texture and depth. And, 3form
added some sheen to the underside
of its Chroma panels, giving them
a blurred effect. 3-form.com

Móz Metals in Motion

Oakland, Calif.–based metal design
and fabrication company Móz has
a new collection of laser-cut metal
surfaces inspired by the natural
world. Metals in Motion features
10 patterns—Jungle, Mosaic, Cyber,
Harvest, Twinkle, Wind, Flight,
Grove, Dune, and Cascade—which
can be used for interior or exterior
wall, ceiling, partition, and column
applications. mozdesigns.com

Sherwin-Williams SofTop
Comfort Systems LaCantina V2 Folding Door
The paint brand’s high-performance Concealed hardware, thin door
flooring division has introduced stiles and rails, large panel sizes for
SofTop, a collection of floor more glass, one-hand operation,
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26

Typology:
The Ecology School
Saco, Maine
Kaplan Thompson Architects, Briburn, and Simons Architects
text by William Richards

The Ecology School at River Bend Farm in

Saco, Maine, represents what you might
call anti-architecture. Comprising nearly
15,300 square feet of living, eating, and
educational-support spaces, the project
is, from an energy standpoint, virtually
invisible—its embodied and operational
carbon are offset by the energy it creates.
The new Ecology School works the
way it does for a reason: the shared notion
between client and designers that the
architecture should be in service to the
school’s larger goal of teaching ecological
stewardship. That, at least, was the
design brief issued by the facility’s CEO
and president, Drew Dumsch, who has
overseen the nonprofit since its founding
in 1998. Over time, the program has
grown from operating seasonally out of
a rented summer camp to running year-
round on a 105-acre tract of pristine land
The Ecology School’s new, 8,893-square-foot dormitory features FSC-certified white-pine
about 7 miles northwest of downtown.
siding from Maine and a metal roof.
Three Portland firms interviewed for
the job—Kaplan Thompson Architects,
Simons Architects, and Briburn—and greater than the individual, and there’s marches up a small hill to the west. By
all three got it, owing to the client’s wish also a strong community work ethic at creating three modestly scaled residential
to make the project stronger through a the school we tried to honor, too.” buildings in the form of barns, inspired by
diversity of design approaches. Ultimately, Working with the Saco-based landscape local vernacular and united by open-air
Kaplan Thompson took the lead on architecture firm Richardson & Associates, walkways, Briburn was able to make
the overall project, Simons Architects the firms began with a charrette, probing thousands of square feet seem like it
designed the 6,380-square-foot dining how to interpret traditional campus had always been there. The buildings
commons, and Briburn designed the models, balance the school’s programmatic also provide flexibility to the school,
8,893-square-foot dormitory. Although needs, and intervene as little as possible which hosts eight different program
the teams claim credit for their individual within the landscape itself. The firms types, from day-long STEM field trips to
contributions, they are resolute about their also surveyed the local ecology in detail, week-long intensive camps to professional
collaboration throughout the project. walking the site with noted ecologist development workshops for teachers.
trent bell photography

“We compete on work as firms—and Tom Wessels and deciding to pin their “The school wanted the architecture
we are all within walking distance from campus plan to a line of maple trees. to be recessive to the land because they
each other—but we put that aside to fulfill The resulting scheme, which spans just wanted buildings for kids who aren’t
this project,” says Jesse Thompson, AIA, over 8 acres, is just as thoughtful. To the supposed to be in buildings. They are
founding principal of Kaplan Thompson. east lies the school’s edible landscape, a supposed to be out in the land learning,”
“There is a tradition in New England in field bearing produce that feeds students says Christopher Briley, AIA, founding
the common good being regarded as and staff. The new dormitory, meanwhile, partner and principal architect at Briburn.

> To see more images and drawings of The Ecology School, visit bit.ly/ARCHesm.
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28

Typology:
Kaplan Thompson Architect, 1 2
Briburn, and Simons Architects

“So, before we knew what our roles were,

we really tried to get the first part right.”
Tasked with sheltering the school’s
200 hungry learners, Simons Architects
designed a spacious education and
dining commons, which was inspired
in its form by the site’s existing 1794
farmhouse. Inside, there is room for
gathering and group work—not to
mention eating—and a commercial,
fully electric kitchen that requires
no combustion, relying on electrical
induction instead. Outside, the Simons
design team created a deep, south-
3
facing porch that engages the site and
supports 200 solar panels on the roof,
which, along with the ground-mounted
photovoltaic array, produces nearly
348,000kWh of energy and 105% of
the school’s needs. Furthering the
team’s environmental goals, water
leaves the site cleaner than when it

1–4: trent bell photography; 5: kaplan thompson architect, briburn, simons architects
entered, thanks to carbon filtration
and ultraviolet light; the system treats
wastewater without chemicals across
the entire school, as well as gray water
for the school’s fields and gardens.
While both the dormitory and
dining commons were designed
and constructed to meet the Living
Building Challenge, the process
to get there was uncertain.
“We had to invent it as we went
along, but we gained traction,” says 4 5
Scott Simons, FAIA, founder, partner,
and principal of Simons Architects.
His partner and fellow principal Ryan
Kanteres, AIA, agrees, noting that
hiring three firms also strengthened
sustainable design in Maine overall.
“If you have three offices doing a
project, you multiply the knowledge
base out there for working with
the Living Building Challenge,”
Kanteres says. “We’ve learned so
much from each other and we’ve
become stronger architects.”
 29

7 8
6, 8: trent bell photography; 7, 9: kaplan thompson architect, briburn, simons architects

1–2. The dormitory, which includes three private rooms for advisors, provides sleeping quarters for 144 students. 3. In addition to a fully electric
commercial kitchen, the dining commons houses a root cellar, gender-neutral bathrooms, and a nurse’s office. 4–5. Equipped with a biophilic
skylight, the porch off the dining commons offers river views. 6. A pair of photovoltaic arrays comprising 712 panels generates 105% of the school’s
energy. 7. The site plan for the new Ecology School. 8. “Mindfully developed on only 8.2 acres, The Ecology School’s campus introduces a minimal
built footprint to nurture its programs and exemplify its pedagogy of regenerative human-nature relationships,” according to a project description
from Kaplan Thompson. 9. The school’s closed-loop water management system treats wastewater sans chemicals while collecting rain to feed
the produce field and gardens.
 A D V E R T I S E M E N T
ARCHITECT INTEL

WHY NOT CARBON-NEGATIVE

CONCRETE?
That day may be much closer than you think with breakthrough news on several fronts.

The imperative to reduce carbon emissions in the built environment is

central to the Architecture 2030 Challenge.
Public and private sector research labs worldwide are racing to deliver
carbon-reducing building materials. Chief among them: zero-carbon concrete.
Material scientists have made dramatic strides in recent years
reimagining concrete composition and formulation. Commonly available
manufacturing byproducts such as fly ash, bottom ash, slag, and other
pozzolans are viable carbon emission-reducing replacements for traditional
cement clinker.
A new $14.2 million, 14,508-square-foot net-zero public facility near
Watertown, Conn. proves that. The project team from TLB Architecture
specified locally available glass pozzolans as a partial clinker replacement.
Glass pozzolans cut global warming potential by 95% compared to
traditional Portland cement, reports Michael Fortuna, AIA, project lead and
TLB Architecture principal.
The Oregon initiative uses an admixture made from biosolids, a waste
BEYOND CARBON OFFSETS stream from municipal wastewater treatment plants. The use of biosolids
ARCHITECT editor-in-chief Paul Makovsky recently profiled the work of simultaneously solves an expensive waste management headache while
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and their partners in creating sustainable creating a possible revenue opportunity for communities. Ordinarily,
concrete. The global design giant is helping pioneer a bio-concrete biosolids are left in a landfill to decompose, which generates CO2 and
alternative to traditional concrete using nontoxic blue-green algae. methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas 80 times more destructive to the
Makovsky writes that photosynthesis is used to help “… create a environment than CO2.
material similar to the calcium carbonate generated in coral reefs and
oyster shells.” COMMERCIAL APPLICATION
Safety certification of the bio-concrete by ASTM International is well The biosolid waste is transformed into a sequestered carbon product.
underway, as is a new manufacturing plant. As SOM’s managing partner, The Oregon team then supercharged carbon reduction with a new type of
Brant Coletta, AIA, told ARCHITECT, “Carbon offsets are no longer enough. sustainable cement called OneCem. OneCem uses less clinker than the
The future needs to be carbon negative. This material enables us to do that traditional manufacturing process and reduces CO2 emissions by five to
immediately without fundamentally changing the way buildings are designed.” 10% per ton of cement.
The one-two punch of a biosolid admixture combined with OneCem
CARBON NEGATIVE BREAKTHROUGH delivers an impressive global warming potential of just 90 kilograms of
Coletta’s decarbonization call to arms has been heard loud and clear in CO2 per cubic yard of concrete (versus about 181.4 kilograms of CO2
Oregon. There, a group of material science innovators have come up with per cubic yard for traditional concrete). Now factor-in the GWP reduction
a way to sequester carbon in concrete using organic waste products. of methane landfill emissions over a 20-year period. The result is carbon-
“The opportunity to sequester meaningful levels of carbon in concrete is negative concrete.
significant,” observes Lionel Lemay, executive vice president of structures The Remy Wines in McMinnville, Ore. is believed to be the first
and sustainability for the National Ready Mix Concrete Association, a leading commercial application of this net-negative concrete formulation. Watch
voice in the built environment’s transformation to a carbon-free future. for the Remy Wines story in coming weeks. n

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“The Top 10 Ways to Reduce Concrete’s Carbon Footprint” at buildwithstrength.com.
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ARCHITECTS

IN THE
 33

text by MADELEINE D’ANGELO

T
hirteen years ago, the Texas-based “You have to speak to [this kind of rewilding
energy provider New Braunfels project] in terms of energy and in terms of
Utilities took stock of its holdings what’s good for the environment is good for
and realized that it wasn’t getting your constituents,” says Lake | Flato partner
much use out of a 16-acre parking Matt Wallace, AIA. “We said, ‘Well, this is a way
and storage complex along the state’s Comal you can connect not only with nature but really
River. Sited near the river’s head, the property connect with the community.’” NBU thought
was nearly monochromatic when seen from the proposal was a great idea, Wallace says.
above, a sea of gray concrete dotted with metal More than a decade later, the project’s
warehouses. Perhaps it would make for a first phase—which encompasses ecosystem
suitable employee events center, NBU wondered, restoration and a multiuse pavilion—is open.
reaching out to architecture firm Lake | Flato Completed under the purview of Headwaters
in nearby San Antonio. But the firm, known for at the Comal, a nonprofit created by NBU
its site-sensitive approach, had another idea: in 2017, the endeavor is a public-private
ecosystem regeneration, also known as rewilding. partnership and, due to its meticulous
When researching the site, a delicate habitat restoration, a case study of how
parcel once carpeted with swaying grasses, architecture firms can approach rewilding.
Lake | Flato focused on its past as a point of The process of rewilding—a practice focused
transition between coastal plains and Texas on restoring ecosystems—might seem ill-suited
hill country. So, in 2010, the firm pitched a to architecture. Fitting naturally into the
community-focused return to the site’s natural domain of landscape architecture, successful,
state. Working alongside Austin-based Ten respectful rewilding often hinges on an absence
Eyck Landscape Architects, the design team of building and development. The process calls
would foster riparian zones along the shoreline, for an intimate understanding of a site’s biome,
uncapping a springhead and restoring habitats ecology, and role in a larger ecosystem—topics
for native species, such as the toothless blindcat, sometimes sidelined in architecture education.
the Comal Springs riffle beetle, and the Ignoring the practice, however, seems unwise
endangered Texas blind salamander. Existing for a market-reactive profession given the
warehouses would be adapted into a solar- health and well-being benefits that users
powered visitors center and an educational derive from green spaces. Remaining ignorant
space accompanied by demonstration gardens of rewilding’s necessity is also a luxury that
so NBU customers could learn about low- architects cannot afford in a warming world
water ecologies and native grasses. experiencing frightening biodiversity loss.

artwork by CARLOS BAÑÓN / MIDJOURNEY

WILD
34

An Integrated and human comfort, but less in terms integrated design in their dwellings,
Environmental Ethic of living systems,” Hwang says. their office spaces, and public spaces—
So what could rewilding mean A repositioning of that lens, really all of the built environment.”
for architects? Originating in focused instead on the experiences Doug Voigt, AIA, an urban
conservation biology, the term of multiple species, fosters a new design and planning partner at
rewilding caught on in North America “environmental ethic,” says Erin Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, sees
in the late 20th century, often Moore, AIA, founder of Eugene, this integration through a holistic
centering on the “cores, corridors, Ore.-based Float Architectural consideration of natural systems.
and carnivores” model from biologists Research and Design. “I think most “We’ll deal with bird-friendly design
Michael Soulé and Reed Noss in of the buildings that we’re living by just looking at how we design the
their 1998 paper “Rewilding and with now—that were built in North façade and the materials we use within
Biodiversity: Complementary Goals America in the last 100 years—are buildings,” Voigt says. “But you need
for Continental Conservation.” artifacts of an environmental ethic to really understand the context,
Although some rewilding manifests that is about separating humans the habitat of those species much
in building solutions—such from the more-than-human whole, further beyond just your project.”
as the planned Liberty Canyon or even putting humans above Voigt points to the firm’s work
Wildlife Crossing in Santa Monica, the more-than-human whole.” on Chicago’s Wild Mile, a floating
Calif.—it can also suggest the Offices such as Seattle’s Wittman park along the city’s Goose Island
reframing of a design process Estes work to whittle down this industrial waterfront, as an example.
that has evolved to disrupt separation, “letting landscapes Working with an interdisciplinary
natural habitats and patterns. drive the design decisions with team—including local organizations
“Rewilding elements could be the architecture being more about Urban Rivers and Omni Ecosystems—
as simple as recognizing that birds framing and putting users in SOM completed phase one in
are in the air and that they’ll fly connection with nature,” says co- 2021, installing 1,500 square feet of
into glass if they can’t see it,” says founding principal Matt Wittman, AIA. modular parks off a 400-foot span
Joyce Hwang, AIA, founder of the Wittman and his founding partner, of shoreline. Connected by a series
Buffalo, N.Y.–based firm Ants of the principal Jody Estes, began as of walkways, the buoyant gardens
Prairie. Hwang, also an associate landscape architects working on large- are studded with plantings that
professor and director of graduate scale urban planning and small-scale filter the water below, restoring the
studies at the University of Buffalo built projects. “I saw that there was river’s oxygen levels and nutrients.
School of Architecture and Planning, a lot of good you could do in that The Wild Mile—which has received
has spent her career investigating realm, and a lot of it stayed on paper,” funding for another 1,500 square
the intersections between biology Wittman says. “The main driver of feet of parks—showcases potential
and architecture and developing the physical built environment that relationships between existing
expertise in multispecies design. we inhabited was more influenced systems. It’s an act of urbanism that
“I think conventionally, by architects.” So, Wittman returned expands social services, providing
architecture over the last decades, to school and earned his M.Arch., parks for nearby residents, and
or at least when I was in school in ultimately working alongside Estes an act of rewilding that expands
the 90s and early 2000s, has focused to lead a multidisciplinary design ecological services. “It’s about
on site as a kind of set of finite firm that meets what Wittman calls a how we find balance, which will
conditions that can be analyzed “large demand from people to have mean different things in different
through the lens of geometry, space, an integrated way of living and an contexts and in different parts of
the world,” Voigt says. “It’s about
restoring those connections.”

Pitfalls
this page: dave burk; opposite: dror baldinger

Despite the concept’s allure, rewilding

presents pitfalls, beginning with the
word itself. Defined as a return to an
area’s uncultivated state, rewilding
is often associated with conservation
biology and mass market successes
such as the reintroduction of gray
wolves to Yellowstone National Park.

The Wild Mile in Chicago includes kayak

docks and pedestrian walkways.
 35

The practice, however, can idealize land untouched by of pangolins—shy, scaly mammals that roll into a ball
humans, erasing existing land management practices and when threatened—in Nepal, Bista and her team developed
“displac[ing] Indigenous communities in the name of a design process defined by education, workshops, and
nature conservation,” explains Priyanka Bista, co-founder community engagement. “It’s very important for us to be
of the New York– and Nepal-based nonprofit design studio passionate but at the same time realize that the people who
Ktk-Belt. Speaking of her work in Nepal, Bista explains are living with or around nature may have very different
that “if you look strictly just in terms of protecting nature, perspectives based on their own everyday realities and
what we don’t realize is that communities have been struggles with biodiversity,” Bista says. “If you are open
protecting and engaging with nature for centuries.” to understanding and perhaps even empathizing with that
And, like other sustainability strategies, the word’s ground reality, then you can have a realistic understanding
popularity can also lead to a watering down of the of the field and can move towards long-term outcomes
concept, reducing it to a design trend or a fantasy of that favor the community as well as their environment.
buildings consumed by landscape. Rewilding could also It may, however, start in an incremental way.”
risk becoming an enviable, yet unrealistic, aesthetic defined
by abundant greenery or vibrant wildflowers, encouraging A Seat at the Table
clients to request designs at odds with a site’s environment. When Lake | Flato began work on the Headwaters
“In some cases, a client in a hotter, drier climate wants a at Comal, back in Texas, it took a long time for the
lush green landscape,” says Ariane Laxo, sustainability earth to heal. Contractors ripped up the asphalt with
director at the Minneapolis-headquartered firm HGA. care, but a powerful storm blew through the area and
“Yet that’s not at all what their climate zone allows.” washed away the exposed topsoil. The tender ground
This discrepancy between vision and reality also extends left behind needed ample rest and time to repair itself.
to upkeep—a detail sometimes overlooked in nature- This is one of the steps, Wallace explains, where things
restoring schemes. “I think part of it goes back to this ideal can go horribly wrong. Rush construction along before
aesthetic and sense of beauty, and this misunderstanding the soil is established, and you risk transforming
or misperception that rewilding is maintenance-free,” well-intentioned rewilding into a money pit.
says Julie Hiromoto, FAIA, principal and director of “The establishment period is so important and if
integration at HKS. “It’s not like you can just plant the you don’t get a contractor that is sensitive to that,
seeds, release some wild critters, and then walk away.” you’re going to be redoing it and redoing it,” Wallace
In that sense, education becomes an essential step in explains. “I’m constantly in discussion with contractors
any rewilding attempts. As the climate crisis intensifies, that respect the land most and have thoughtful and
design professionals, property owners, and property artful means and methods because as an architect, you
managers might feel pressure to embrace holistic don’t get to choose the ways by which they build.” You
sustainability rather than homing in on a specific problem. need a team with a strong transition plan for the land—
But that impulse requires a wealth of knowledge—in patient and knowledgeable collaborators on all sides.
the case of rewilding, being fully aware of the site’s For architects to better address the challenges of climate
ecological history, soil chemistry, cultural history, and change, resilience, multispecies health, and human well-
risk of introducing invasive species, for starters. being, this is how they fit into rewilding: incrementally,
Input also needs to come from the community, one learning from collaborators and community as they go. “I
willing to engage in maintenance or preservation. During think, as architects, we have a seat at the table, but I don’t
a recent project focused on reducing the illegal trafficking believe we should be leading the lecture,” Wallace says.

Phase one of Headwaters at the Comal in

Texas includes a multiuse pavilion; phase two
will see a former warehouse adapted into an
education center.
xyz
 A Guide to
36

Solving for the climate crisis and the accompanying biodiversity crisis can and should go hand in hand.

Text by Sierra Bainbridge

Designers play a significant role in High Line, a public park built on a historical, visitors to take in the robust explosions of
climate change. The built environment, elevated freight line in New York, while I was colors and textures; to hear bees buzzing
which we are involved in shaping and at local landscape architecture firm James over the din of traffic; to watch butterflies
maintaining, has a notable impact on the Corner Field Operations. Our mission float on the breeze off the Hudson River;
natural environment, particularly in terms was to make the expanse of opportunistic and to commune with nature in the middle
of greenhouse gas emissions. While we wildflowers and weeds that grew up and of the largest metropolis in North America.
need to provide durable, safe, and beautiful over the elevated railway tracks—the Today, the High Line is one of the most
places to live, we must also acknowledge urban meadow captured in Joel Sternfeld’s visited places in New York by people as
and take greater responsibility for the photographs—accessible to the public. well as uncounted nonhuman visitors.
environmental impacts these processes Using the abandoned infrastructure that Through exploratory cross-disciplinary
have on both our local ecosystems and the cut through commercially viable blocks on collaboration, we can make every project
areas from which we obtain resources. Manhattan’s West Side, we employed a biodiverse and carbon positive by designing
Enter rewilding, a term coined by the late process framed by the tenets of landscape for all species. Solving for the climate crisis
environmentalist Dave Foreman in 1992. As urbanism—we applied a holistic approach and the accompanying biodiversity crisis
it turns out, we humans are just one of the to reimagine how humans and ecosystems can and should go hand in hand. A few basic
organisms that rely on healthy ecosystems can share and benefit from these places. We steps applied to any scale project—from a
for physical and mental well-being; the uprooted the plant and soil communities traffic median, a backyard, or an urban lot
richness and diversity of plant life directly to shore up the line’s aged concrete and to a region, nation, or a bioregion—can both
contribute to the overall diversity and steel structure, putting the tracks and other enhance biodiversity and reduce carbon.
stability of entire ecosystems. Rewilding artifacts back together in an accessible When we understand that intact ecologies
isn’t just about the work and methods and durable way, while intensifying the can host anywhere from 530 terrestrial to
of re-proliferating locally appropriate experience of the wild nature that had 9,000 aquatic organisms per cubic foot, ac-
biodiversity. It is also about rebuilding our once occurred. We embraced landscape cording to Smithsonian Magazine, everything
relationship with the wild in order to receive designer Piet Oudolf’s four-season planting we do counts. As we seek out and learn
the plethora of benefits that keep us well. scheme to provide access for millions to a about the sites for our projects, we need to
My first experience with the potential of new embodiment of that magical floating keep these simple steps in mind to minimize
rewilding was working on Section 1 of the meadow. We created narrow paths for harm and maximize potential regeneration:

Built with low-embodied-energy

materials like rammed earth and
local timber, the Rwanda Institute
for Conservation Agriculture
includes more than 300,000
new plantings. Opposite: The
Ellen DeGeneres Campus of
the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund
features green roofs and a
wetland for treating wastewater.
 Rewilding
37

In this case, just relocating grazing and farming to land outside the
wetland zone was enough to allow the ecology to regain its function.

4. Proliferate biodiversity.
With an understanding of the local and regional ecosystems and
climate adaptability predictions, design a diverse and resilient land-
scape. At the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla
Fund site in Rwanda, we tested the adaptability of five higher-ele-
vation ecologies to lower elevations in a simulation of what climate
adaptation might look like for the Virunga National Park, home to
one of the world’s few growing silverback gorilla populations. We
collected the key plant species for these communities, propagated
them, and then prepared and planted the formerly agricultural
site. However, rewilding is rooted in less intensive restoration
methods that leverage or enhance natural processes to support
landscapes in recovering their ecological functionality. For instance,
putting up roosting poles to entice birds to hunt, sleep, rest, and
scatter their droppings naturally propagates the seeds the birds
eat—an inexpensive and efficient way to transform agricultural
1. Seek the site that has already been touched.
land into a more diverse and ecologically productive landscape.
Reuse, restore, and redevelop the buildings and follow the urban
space we have in all our global cities. The human benefits of
As a landscape architect and an architect, I’ve spent most of my
this are tighter communities, more accessible and convenient
career trying to merge these two disciplines—to have the architec-
amenities, and healthier, less-car-dependent lifestyles.
ture and landscape design of every project embrace each other to
be seamless in experience, systems implementation, and impact. I
2. Work to conserve intact ecologies.
am thrilled to share that MASS Design Group will soon launch the
Perform an ecological and historical survey of the site to understand
Abundant Futures Design Lab, a groundbreaking climate-action
the level of functionality of existing ecological systems, as well as
initiative centered on more than a decade of carbon-reduction, One
the quantity and diversity of plants and animal communities pres-
Health, and rewilding research and design. For humans, plants, and
ent. If there is a thriving community, no matter the size, conserve
animals to have a chance at mutual survival, we as designers need to
left and top: iwan baan; bottom right: courtesy mass design group

the area: These are the most carbon-rich areas of any site, and they
work together to ensure that every project is biodiverse and carbon
perform the highest level of carbon sequestration and biodiversity
positive. The excitement this process brings to our field gives us the
work when left undisturbed. With MASS Design Group’s work
means and the hope to make a better future possible.
on the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture, we found,
preserved, restored, and protected a 400-hectare, intact savanna
woodland, the only one outside of Rwanda’s national parks.
Sierra Bainbridge is a senior principal and managing director at MASS
Design Group and a co-founding member of the firm.
3. Design to restore degraded ecologies to higher levels of
ecological function.
Understanding the makeup of the local ecologies, particularly how
they function as communities—including a site’s soil microbial
diversity, the plant communities across its surface, its hydrology and
water quality, as well as the insects, birds, and animals that form
this specific web of life—is critical. If waterways were controlled,
redirected, or submerged, assess the potential for restoration. If
an area was degraded, urbanized, or used for agriculture, consider
what ecology would best suit the recovery of diversity of the site. At
RICA, we protected 600 hectares of seasonal wetland. The area had
been grazed intensively, resulting in compromised biodiversity. The
nearby lake’s water quality was also degraded through animal fecal
contamination, in part caused by the failed state of the wetland,
which should have cleaned water as it moved toward the lake.
38

From façade systems that support microhabitats

to infrastructure projects that tackle resilience,
housing, and biodiversity in one fell swoop,
here’s how architects, product designers, and
researchers are bringing rewilding to the fore.

IN
ACTION
text by MADELEINE D’ANGELO
and ANDREA TIMPANO
 39

Bird and Bee Façade

Aiming to marry high-performance ceramics with
habitat creation, the Minneapolis- and New York–
based studio CookFox Architects and engineers
from the international firm Buro Happold turned
to terra cotta, developing a product that, according
to a CookFox description, accommodates
microhabitats for birds, bees, and plants. “The
team was inspired to push the boundaries of
architectural terra cotta by creating a biophilic
screen wall with the goal to support, and educate
about, the diverse native ecosystems that thrive in
our urban environments,” CookFox senior associate
Spencer Lapp, AIA, tells ARCHITECT over email.
The modular façade comprises a series of
low-fired terra cotta pods inserted into a high-
fired ceramic base. Each pod was developed to
support a specific life-form: A bee pod contains
a collection of 4mm to 8mm tubes perfect for
housing stingless bees; a bird pod offers feathered
friends a vented, low-fired ceramic nesting
chamber; and a planter pod nestles a terra cotta
planter within a bottom-watering reservoir. The
system’s design is fully customizable, allowing for
any arrangement of pods, and aims to “provide
a framework for microhabitats that is less
prescriptive and more adaptive,” Lapp explains.
“For example, seeds may blow in on the wind and
cookfox architects/buro happold

start growing in the module’s grooves. Or perhaps

eusocial bumblebees take over a bird pod.”
After developing the concept as part of
the 2020 Architectural Ceramic Assemblies
Workshop—a yearly research program to
investigate innovative terra cotta applications—
CookFox and Buro Happold constructed a
full-scale mockup of the system in 2021, with
the modular elements produced in Kansas
City, Mo. One day, the firms hope, the system
will find its way into a built project. —MD
40

Furnishing Utopia
How can designers expand their practices through care, empathy, and generosity?
That was a question underpinning the latest from exhibitor Furnishing Utopia
at the 2023 NYCxDesign festival. Now in its fifth cycle, the installation—dubbed
“Public Access”—included works from 37 designers spread across 12 countries, all
drawing upon “communal values of the Shakers as well as the counter-cultural DIY
movement of the 60s and 70s,” according to a description from Furnishing Utopia.
Some of this year’s works extend design hospitality to the nonhuman realm,
including a geometric shelter for opossums presented by Mexican industrial
designer Jorge Diego Etienne and “Bee Eaters,” a decorative habitat for mason
bees developed by Grain, a studio in Bainbridge Island, Wash. —MD

Rewilding our Cities

Urban rewilding projects can be formidable

this page: jonathan hokklo, john daniel powers, zsl rewilding report
players in the fight against climate change.
So says the Zoological Society of London,
a conservation organization focused on
restoring wildlife in the U.K. and beyond.
According to ZSL’s “Rewilding Our Cities”
report, published in September 2022,
rewilding “not only provides new ways to
engage urbanites with nature … but could
improve climate change mitigation and
adaptation, reduce disaster risk and pollution
levels, and slow down or even help reverse
biodiversity loss.” While lead author Nathalie
Pettorelli cautions that large-scale projects
should be overseen by experts to avoid
unintended consequences such as exacerbating
unequal access to green space and the
spread of disease, she is optimistic about the
approach overall. “This is the first report of
its kind to lay out a roadmap for rewilding
our cities and we believe this is a high-impact
solution to jointly address the climate and
biodiversity-loss crises in a low-cost, hands-off
way,” Pettorelli said in a press release. —AT
 41

Port Lands Flood Protection Project

Flood protection meets rewilding meets
housing in Toronto’s Port Lands project,
billed as one of the city’s largest-ever
infrastructure initiatives. The scheme—
overseen by government agency
Waterfront Toronto and reflecting the
design vision of Massachusetts-based
landscape architecture firm Michael
Van Valkenburgh Associates—aims to
reroute a river in the city’s industrial
Port Lands district to minimize flooding
in the event of a major storm. Just as
important, it also entails the creation
of parks with walking and cycling
trails, habitats for animals, and (later) a
residential neighborhood that includes
affordable units. With the first park set
to debut in 2024, the project is on track
to be a remarkable transformation for
a previously underutilized, polluted
area—and a promising model for
achieving resilience, biodiversity, and
housing goals in a single site. —AT

Haynes Inlet
Completed in 2019 as part of a project series called Portals, from Float Architecture Research
and Design in Eugene, Ore., the Haynes Inlet is a shelter for multiple species along the
shoreline in North Bend, Ore. The installation—one of three such portals—sits in protest along
the proposed path of the Pacific Connector Pipeline, a 235-mile gas transmission structure
that would impact a cascade of surrounding ecosystems. Although plans for the development
were abandoned in 2021, the Float portal remains, a reminder of threats to biodiversity.
Appropriating the form of a pipeline, the portal is a tall, tubular pavilion loosely
thatched with local rush and tule. One side offers some shelter from rainwater and the other
catches rainwater, debris, and nutrients for nonhuman species. “It’s clear that if you put
something near land and water, an edge condition with exposure to water and light and
shelter, there’s going to be a lot of biodiversity and you don’t have to know what it’s going
to be,” explains Float founder Erin Moore, AIA. “You’re just making space for it.”
Although a narrow bench sits along the side repelling rainwater—offering expansive views
of the surrounding bay—the structure is “very specifically meant to be not just for humans,”
Moore says. “[The portal is] meant to shake the way people perceive a place.” —MD
port lands: ryan walker; haynes inlet: erin moore
42

P ducts
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Jeld-Wen Turtle Glass

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44

Q&A:Angela Loder
edited by andrea timpano with reporting by kyle troutman

As the vice WELL Building Institute did an

president of analysis of rewilding in the workplace.
research at New What we saw in the literature is that
York’s International there are four outcomes that nature
WELL Building strongly supports. The first is task
Institute, Angela performance, which is a version of
Loder focuses productivity. The second is stress
on studying the reduction. We know that there’s
relationships a mental health crisis. Providing
between human health, well-being, and rewilding is one of the best ways to
the natural and built environments. allow employees to take micro breaks
Here, the Denver-based pro—also the at work so they can perform again.
author of the 2020 book Small-Scale It also has benefits for socialization.
Urban Greening: Creating Places of There is evidence that nature helps
Health, Creativity, and Ecological people be more attached to place
Sustainability—talks about rewilding and have pride in their building’s
and the restorative powers of nature. neighborhood. These are important and small pocket parks. What have
things for companies trying to get captured people’s imaginations are
How do you define rewilding? workers back to the office; offering projects where you’ve got plants
To understand current urban more access to nature might help embedded into the structure of
greening, which includes this idea of employees want to come back. The the building. In Milan, the Bosco
rewilding, we have to understand why last outcome is creativity. A lot of Verticale by Stefano Boeri has trees
it’s different than previous types of us are knowledge workers. We are growing on each of the balconies.
greening for cities. We had the City not working in factories; we need Projects like these require different
Beautiful movement [in the 1890s], to sit at a computer, think of ideas, structural supports and you need to

left: jennifer koskinen; right: courtesy friends of the rail park

which gave us places like Central Park and have creative inspiration. The take climate into account, but they
in New York; we had ecological goals evidence is new and emerging, but are grabbing the most attention
like wetland restoration in the 1980s. it’s promising that access to nature because they’re so innovative.
Current urban greening is different. can help. I’ve also heard from
For the first time, ecological goals are interview participants that rewilding What do architects need to
blending with human health, equity, even gives people a sense of hope. tackle rewilding projects?
and socialization goals. What’s also The climate’s on fire, politics are A partner, like a horticulturalist, that
new is that, because they’re built up, depressing for many people, and has plant knowledge. The collapse
cities have to be creative about where everybody’s burnt out; having hope in these projects happens when you
they put these projects; they have to that there’s something they can add plants with no understanding
put them on rooftops or in vacant control can be worth an enormous of whether they’re appropriate.
corridors like with Philadelphia’s Rail amount. I know it sounds cheesy, but Also, if there’s no maintenance
Park. All of this is shifting what we honestly, the research supports it. schedule, the project fails. Part of
think of as “this is the city, and that’s the mindset needs to be that you
nature.” It’s challenging our ideas of How can architects incorporate build in costs for maintaining plants
what nature is and where it should be. rewilding into new and and somebody who knows how to
existing structures? do that. Architects don’t always
Aside from ecological benefits, There are four typologies of rewilding have in-depth knowledge around
what are some upsides to rewilding? happening in U.S. cities right now: biodiversity and horticulture, so
In collaboration with the nonprofit green roofs, green infrastructure, working with a professional that has
Nature Sacred, the International post-industrial spaces like rail lines, that experience helps mitigate issues.

Above right: Aerial shot showing phase one of Philadelphia’s ongoing Rail Park project, which will
convert a historical railway into a green space that spans 3 miles.
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 July/August 2023 AIANow 49 AIAFeature 50 AIAFuture 54 AIAPerspective 56

Architect
found that age is one of the most
BIRCH THOMAS

significant factors in relation

to experience [with licensure].
Younger candidates are reporting
fewer challenges than older
peers. If you’re between 18 and
29, it takes a little bit less time to
complete the experience that’s
required for licensure than if
you’re on the older side, like me.
Women, people of color,
minorities—each of these
communities faces common, and
also specific, challenges. Some I
experienced myself. A big factor, of
course, is firm culture. According
to our study, Black and African
American candidates, when
compared to white candidates,

Repaving the Road are less likely to say that they

“belong” in a firm, that their firms

to Licensure
value diversity or inclusion, or
that they feel valued. Women and
people of color, especially African
Removing unnecessary barriers for a more equitable profession. Americans, are much more likely
As told to Katherine Flynn to have faced discrimination
or witnessed it. If that is your
Patricia Ramallo, aia, is assistant vice process] can attest to that. There day-to-day life, it really impacts
president of innovation at NCARB. are challenges to overcome at the licensure process. It’s not
She served on a panel at AIA’s every step, from selecting the right surprising that these are the
2023 Conference on Architecture school to finding a supportive firm groups that also consider leaving
addressing the many challenges in to gain some experience—one that the field, and this is where we’re
the licensure process for women, is also mindful of your time and having attrition.
minorities, and immigrants—a topic the amount of money it costs to go The more we talk about these
that particularly resonates with through the exams—not to mention things, the more likely we are to
Ramallo, who was born in Argentina the support you need from your find solutions. The simple fact
and started her architecture own family. is that you are not alone—you
career there. We chatted with her This is something that NCARB have your individual obstacles
about NCARB’s efforts to remove has been looking at in more and challenges, but at the same
unnecessary barriers for those detail. We want to understand time there is a whole community
seeking to become licensed, as well as and identify, “What are the out there that is going through
her own challenges and triumphs on areas that require additional the same thing. It really helps,
the way to licensure. support? Where can we do understanding that.
something?” There’s a study that Licensure is a challenge, but
Becoming an architect is certainly [the National Organization of it’s so rewarding. That is the other
not easy. It requires intention and Minority Architects] and NCARB side: the sense of achievement and
perseverance. I’m sure everyone collaborated on in 2020 called the opportunities, the doors that it
who has gone through [the “Baseline on Belonging.” We opens, that make it worth it. AIA

47
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 A I A N O W

ADUs and
Rental Units
Continue
to Increase
in Popularity
Meanwhile, the popularity of finished
basements and attics is decreasing.
By Jessica Mentz/AIA Research

The net share of respondents seeing an

increase in the popularity of accessory dwelling
units and rental units in or near single-family
homes rose to 75% in this year’s AIA Home
Design Trends Survey. Micro-housing options
(such as tiny houses) increased to 31%, up from
17% last year, while the popularity of a finished
basement/attic decreased: The net share of
respondents saw it drop to 34%, compared to
last year’s 39%.

Source: AIA Home Design Trends Survey Q2 2023

RACHEL KAPISAK JONES

49
A I A F E A T U R E

50
 Containing Multitudes
Architects can help create more dynamic and varied neighborhoods via missing middle housing.

By Katherine Flynn

From the curb, “missing middle” system—is improperly oriented to types that mix residential and
housing might not look much single-family housing. Younger retail—or what I call “live-work”—or
different from its single-family generations are struggling to structures that are served by
counterparts—and that’s the point. afford and access this type of stacked parking garages or public
TORTI GALLAS + PARTNERS

However, its ability to contain housing, making the innovation transit. In the last 10 to 15 years,
multitudes is what makes it such of alternative housing types innovations in this type of housing
an innovative option in today’s essential. Compounding the have gained traction in and around
cost-prohibitive and space- issue is the fact that within the major metropolitan areas.
strapped housing market. This last decade, increasing numbers However, just because you
typology enlivens neighborhoods of single-family homes have loosen the definition for “missing
and communities without been built and/or purchased by middle,” it doesn’t mean you’re
sacrificing single-family scale or institutional investors—making going to get good buildings. There’s
the convenience of neighborhood wealth accumulation out of reach a lot of crappiness out there.
walkability. It’s also what Brian for millions of Americans.
O’Looney, aia, of Washington, At the beginning of the What are some bad examples of
D.C.-based Torti Gallas + Partners, pandemic, I released a book missing middle?
specializes in designing. O’Looney [Increments of Neighborhood: A
credits Dan Parolek, aia, an Compendium of Built Types for A few examples include the
urban designer and architect at Walkable and Vibrant Communities] Bayonne box, named after
California-based Opticos Design, of 140 building types that make the area in New Jersey where
with coining the term. good walkable communities. It’s it originated, which is top-
O’Looney spoke to attendees on broader than what is typically heavy and vehicle-oriented, so
this topic at AIA’s 2023 Conference defined as the “missing middle.” it doesn’t look great from the
on Architecture, held in June There are a lot of housing types sidewalk. The “snout house”
in San Francisco, in a session that allow for multifamily living features an unwelcoming front
titled “Enriching Neighborhoods: aside from a large, institutional, wall, and “pop-up” row houses in
Building Types for Community multifamily building. So, there Washington, D.C., tower several
Beyond the ‘Missing Middle.’” He are scales of residential buildings stories above their neighbors on
encouraged AIA and its members that are below institutional, either side.
to take a stand for better design in but there are also a lot of types
missing middle housing, which, he that aren’t in the conversation— What are some good examples of
believes, can support more varied residential over ground-floor retail, this type of housing?
and dynamic neighborhoods. for example.
We chatted with O’Looney At one point, according to There’s a great project called the
about why this typology is urbanist Christopher Leinberger, Cotton District in Starkville, Miss.,
becoming increasingly necessary. there were 19 types of structures which is a student neighborhood
that were built (and financed) in built by someone who just
First of all, why is missing middle a typical suburban development, all kept adding rental buildings
housing important? of them served by surface parking to an existing student housing
lots. None of them allowed for any development. Some are one-room
Our current housing stock—and type of mixed density or mixed-use studios, others are lofted units with
its accompanying economic development: for example, building a kitchen on the ground floor and a

Milwaukee’s Westlawn Gardens is a high-density project conceptualized to meet the needs of a variety of individuals and families.

51
bathroom above. It’s a very clever
mix of types.
Other good examples include
the two-over-two town house,
basically a row house divided
into two two-story units, and
Charlestons, which offer balcony
access. A variety of mixed-type
master plans allow for flex space
between retail and residential
spaces, like several projects I’ve
worked on with the grocery store
chain Safeway in Washington,
D.C., featuring a grocery store on

TORTI GALLAS + PARTNERS

the bottom and housing on the
floors above. In the Lightsview
development of Adelaide, Australia,
even with front-loaded homes, the
pedestrian scale still has primacy.
Other types are more complex
self-park types: so alley-loaded
types that have three units in them
and are very dense, but on the Torti Gallas’s Church Hill North development in Richmond, Va.
street side feel like houses.
Some of the projects we’ve uses. Design issues like “buried I’m not the expert on that. I would
worked on go a little bit beyond bedrooms”—bedrooms on interior point anyone to the [Incremental
our typical live-work typology. The walls that don’t have windows— Development Alliance]. Accessory
conventional live-work building are easily solved by utilizing dwelling unit allowances are a
usually has about 900 square feet elements like frosted-glass pocket second mechanism. You can easily
on the ground floor. If you can doors to allow more light in. The get your home refinanced and build
combine the buildings side-to-side, greatest challenges for these types an ADU.
you’re able to get tenant sizes that of conversions are regulatory, not Jurisdictions like Bryan, Texas,
work for other types of tenants design-centric. I’m in favor of have predesigned unit types.
besides hair salons and nail salons, eliminating regulatory red tape They’ve hired architects to do some
which are typically found in this to make these types of designs for multiunit buildings that
type of structure. conversions easier for building look like houses. You can just go
Some other good neighborhood owners to complete. to the city and pick up the set of
types that supplement this kind of So much of this is about plans, and if you’re a landowner,
development type are full-service mobility. One of the things that you’ll have a preapproved set of
grocers on the second level, so you we talk about in the firm is how, if contract documents that allows you
can park below. There are some we provide surface parking for a to build.
wood office buildings that people project, privatized mobility hurts There’s definitely a lot of
don’t realize you can do as long as the yield of the site. passion for this type of growth.
you stay below height restrictions. There’s been a proliferation of
These allow for neighborhoods that There’s a preconception that it ADUs in California and in cities
are less homogeneous. can be tough to get these types of like Portland, Ore. Getting involved
projects financed. Is that the case? in master planning preapproved
There have been a lot of ADUs and other missing middle
conversations recently about The typical finance mechanism housing types can give architects
converting underused office that’s being used is an FHA loan. an opportunity to carve out a niche
buildings into housing. What’s Most people don’t know this, but for themselves in a space where
your experience with this? the single-family lenders can they’ve previously been excluded.
lend [for development up to and If there are new financing
I call certain areas “stagnation including] fourplexes. So that’s an streams that come into play for
zones” when they’re not living easy loan mechanism that’s out these buildings, you’ll start to see
up to their potential for housing there. When you talk about missing them happen. There are organized
as a result of unnecessary middle and getting it financed YIMBY communities that are going
zoning distinction and regulation easily and quickly and empowering to push for this, which I’m very
between office and residential folks to do it, that’s the No. 1 way. hopeful and excited about. AIA

52
Women in architecture and the allied professions do not achieve
leadership roles at the same rate as male colleagues.

Lead the change

you want to see.
Join us in Boston September 12–14, 2023.
Tickets are limited. Register today!
aia.org/wls
 A I A F U T U R E

Valley Pearls: Designing Sustainably

in Suburbia
Five new buildings in California’s Warner Center seek to change the character of the neighborhood.

By Katherine Flynn

When Los Angeles–area planners work every day than make their that will provide housing, jobs,
first envisioned Warner Center, homes there. and services, with an emphasis
they wanted to prioritize features Warner Center was constructed on walkability, improved public
that can be challenging to find in on 1.5 square miles of ranch transportation, and the creation
Southern California: walkability, land originally owned by Harry of safe bike lanes. Key elements of
density, and easy access to Warner, one of the four Warner the plan include encouraging infill
mass transit. In a perfect world, brothers in the eponymous media development and redevelopment
this 1970s master-planned company. Buildings laid out in the of existing properties, as well
neighborhood would help relieve initial plan—many of which still as promoting green building
car traffic between the San stand today—included shopping standards. Warner Center is ready
Fernando Valley and downtown complexes, residential buildings, to embody the ethos touted by
LA by providing the Valley with its a hospital, a park, a Metro Orange urban planners—that cities operate
own urban hub while controlling Line station, light industrial areas, more effectively when residents
sprawl and implementing smart and three skyscrapers clad with live in denser urban surroundings.
growth strategies. mirrored glass surfaces.
Things didn’t quite pan out A newer Warner Center 2035 Enter: The Q Buildings
that way. According to historic plan, however, aims to make the
preservation organization the Los area a desirable place to live, as Designed by Newman Garrison
Angeles Conservancy, the suburban well as work. Drafted over the + Partners, a Costa Mesa, Calif.-
Warner Center is currently course of eight years, the proposal based firm, the Q buildings are
more of a business district than represents what the Warner Center residential-commercial structures
a neighborhood: More people Association calls “a thoughtful comprising 1,400 residential units
commute to and from the area for approach to planned growth” across five buildings, all located
The Q Topanga, one of five Q buildings located at Warner Center, was completed in 2021.

54
 within a square mile of each other vehicle for local driving becomes wood—just to name a few—have
in Warner Center (three are located less of a requirement.” really come a long way and have
on the same block). Featuring Each of the five projects was become more innovative.”
studio, one-bedroom, and two- required by the Warner Center John Garrison, aia, president of
bedroom rental options, each plan to have a percentage of space design development at Newman
structure was designed according to allocated toward non-residential Garrison + Partners, says that a
the mandates of the master plan. use. By concentrating development white “cool roof” at The Q Topanga,
“The vision behind the Warner that incorporates restaurants the most recently finished of the
Center plan was to revitalize and and commercial spaces, the projects, reflects more sunlight
create a sustainable community area will ideally become a live/ than a conventional roof, absorbing
that enhanced mobility options,” work/play neighborhood and less solar energy and lowering the
says Kevin Newman, CEO and community—and it’s off to a strong building’s overall temperature.
creative director of Newman start. The Q Variel was completed High-efficiency LED light fixtures
Garrison + Partners. The firm in 2020, and The Q Topanga was throughout the buildings, as well as
has worked on a variety of completed in 2021. The latest of the efficient air conditioning units with
award-winning market-rate and developments, The Q De Soto, is high Seasonal Energy Efficiency
affordable multifamily structures expected to be completed in 2025. Ratio ratings, lower the energy and
across the U.S. electricity usage, as do occupancy
“Walkability and access to Going Green sensors for the lighting in the
public transit was a huge priority,” parking garage and common areas.
he continues. “Specifically, [the] Although California is the first “Dual-pane windows and
projects are relatively close to state in the nation to have a low-flush plumbing fixtures can be
public transit stops, which makes mandatory green building code, found in every unit,” Garrison adds.
it convenient for our tenants not as of 2011, Newman Garrison + While the Southern California
to have to get in their vehicles. Partners paid special attention residential market demands a
Warner Center is not considered to sustainable details during certain level of amenities—like
an urban area by any stretch of the materials-selection and valet parking and fitness classes—
the imagination, so people in the landscape-design processes of the in market-rate buildings the size
Valley are still reliant on their Q buildings, as well as the energy of the Q developments, Newman
cars. However, as more of these efficiency of each unit. and colleagues saw opportunities
JUAN TALLO

mixed-use developments—which “The projects were designed to use this to their advantage. In
include shopping, dining and to feature energy-efficient their designs, the firm wanted to
entertainment—are built in Warner components,” Newman says. equally prioritize the experience
Center, the need to use your “There are sustainable design of both the building’s users and
elements all the way through each the public at-large.
of the developments. For example, “Warner Center as a whole will
all the units were designed to have promote connectivity,” Newman
smart thermostats, high-efficiency says. “Public transit provides
plumbing and light fixtures, easier access to downtown LA
windows, [and] appliances. In and other areas of the Valley, like
addition, we worked closely with Burbank or Pasadena. It becomes
our landscape architects to include a more convenient, accessible
low-water-usage plantings, along neighborhood, which it wasn’t
with above-grade stormwater before this specific plan was
planters to collect roof rainwater to incorporated.”
be used for irrigation.”
Newman and his colleagues also Maximizing Density
incorporated eco-friendly building
materials into the Q building Newman says that the goal of
designs—made possible, he says, by all five completed projects is an
a recent boom in materials industry inviting urban environment—a
innovations. “string of pearls” attached to one
“That’s something that we’ve another.
really focused on for several years He emphasizes that maximizing
now,” he says. “As we get into more density during the process provided
design opportunities and [material] both constraints and opportunities.
alternatives, the materials that we “We’ve worked with specific
currently use, such as bamboo, plans in other jurisdictions before,
recycled plastics, and reclaimed but they’re all different,” Newman

55
 says. “With [this] specific plan, opportunity, and we looked at it as greatly increasing its density and
it was challenging, but it also a way [to] integrate new ideas and opening it up to the public via
provided a tremendous amount of utilize those spaces on the ground retail spaces.
design creativity to make a lot of floor in such a way where it really The uniqueness of these
these features come to fruition.” developed a synergy within the particular projects, Newman says,
Residential developers are community,” Newman said. was the most rewarding part of
typically averse to building While The Q Variel and The Q taking them on.
commercial space, but in this Topanga have been completed, the “It’s been one of the most
case, the mandates of the plan other three developments—The Q enjoyable projects we’ve worked
required it. De Soto, The Q at Erwin, and The on, because you never get a
“From a developer’s point of Q Califa—are still in progress. The chance to do five projects in one
view, I think it was a lot more latter will replace the former one- neighborhood with one client,”
challenging. But from a designer’s story office building that occupied he says. “In fact, in my career, it’s
point of view, I think it was an the lot with two mixed-use towers, never happened.” AIA

A I A P E R S P E C T I V E
The AIA Framework for Design
Excellence provides architects with

Home Innovation a vision of what the profession

strives to achieve. The Framework
informs progress toward a zero-
Architects are best suited to offer solutions to address affordable housing. carbon, equitable, resilient, and
healthy built environment, and
By Emily Grandstaff-Rice, faia, 2023 AIA President provides practical resources.
We can also use our voice to
Whether you are looking to rent, to providing this quality housing. support neighbors who do not have
buy, or build, national housing Where should we focus our efforts? the privilege of hiring an architect
statistics offer a rocky outlook. R. Denise Everson, assoc. aia, to build or renovate a space. That is
U.S. Census data shows all leader at D.C.-based consulting the message AIA shared when AIA
household formations, including service ThinkBox and a member EVP/CEO Lakisha Ann Woods, cae,
ownership and rental, have slowed of AIA’s Housing and Community 2019 AIA President Bill Bates, faia,
over the past year. According to Development Knowledge and I met with U.S. Department of
Forbes, home prices are up 12% Community, believes in increased Housing and Urban Development
since last year, while home sales production of single-family Deputy Secretary Adrianne
are down. The Architectural dwellings, duplexes, two-over-two Todman earlier this year.
Billing Index indicates business town houses, multifamily mid- We discussed how architects
conditions softened further at rises, and garden-style buildings. and design professionals can help
firms with multifamily residential She also suggests communities address our country’s housing
specialization in May, falling to the renovate existing housing stock challenges. We shared AIA’s focus
lowest level in two years. near supportive services and on sustainability and emphasized
Demand increased for transportation arteries, improving how to instill greater resilience and
multifamily housing in 2021, energy and water efficiency and efficiency in affordable housing.
according to Freddie Mac, which sustainability. We must continue to advocate
led to a boom in apartment building Resilience, affordability, and and be at the center of these
construction. The same report zoning and land-use policy are conversations with policy makers.
(“2023 Multifamily Outlook”), the top three concerns shared by Architects are innovators, and
however, hints at struggles, Adrianne Steichen, aia, principal collectively, as a profession, we are
suggesting “the sagging rate of at Pyatok, also a member of making an impact. AIA
completions.” AIA’s Housing and Community
Quality housing is a basic Development Knowledge
human need and a place of solace Community. Echoing Everson’s
for the soul. The need is significant calls to renovate and build to
BIRCH THOMAS

for affordable housing but critical accommodate climate change, she

for the unhoused. As masterful embraces creating walkable cities
problem solvers and community and untangling political, legal,
planners, architects have an and social constructs to make
influential voice when it comes affordable housing possible.

56
You Deserve More.
The premiere website for practicing architects
and designers–featuring news, project galleries,
continuing education, blogs, videos, and more—is
architectmagazine.com
CONTIN U IN G E D UC ATI ON

Propane-Powered Amenities
in Multifamily and Hospitality Sponsored By:

Developments
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Identify the types of amenities that today’s
multifamily developments offer to attract
residents who are “renters by choice.”
2. Describe how hospitality businesses have
pivoted their operations in recent years
and important amenities they are offering
guests.
3. Examine the role propane can play in
attracting new residents and guests by
increasing amenity offerings.
4. Explore several case studies where propane
allowed multifamily developers and resort
operators to maximize their offered
amenities.

CONTINUING EDUCATION
This course is approved for AIA Learning
Unit Credits. For details on the learning units
or credit information, and to earn credit and
obtain a certificate of completion, visit
http://go.hw.net/ARPERC723 to view the
entire CEU and complete the quiz. Hanley
Wood University CEU courses are free once
you create a learner account.

SHIFTING PRIORITIES FOR LIVING AND the pandemic and have come out on they’ve come to symbolize a person’s
LEISURE SPACES the other side with expanded offerings, lifestyle and chosen community. In
The operation of multifamily and many centered around outdoor dining, fact, an increasing number of people
hospitality developments has drastically lounges, and green spaces. This course are renters by choice versus necessity.
transformed in recent years not only will examine some of the amenities They love the flexibility that comes with
due to the pandemic but because these developments are offering, and renting and the easy access to nightlife,
of shifting lifestyles and consumer the role propane can play in attracting culture, social opportunities, and even
priorities. People are seeking a tight-knit new residents and guests with expanded work that it affords them. According
community, health and wellness, and amenities. to Multifamily Executive: “More high-
a greater connection to the outdoors. earning Americans are opting to rent
Their standards tend to be a bit higher, MULTIFAMILY AMENITY TRENDS than in the past, with the number of
with many expecting luxury offerings, or Multifamily developments, including renter households earning $150,000 or
at least a version of them, in housing and apartments and condos, senior living more a year rising 87% between 2016
places where they spend leisure time. facilities, and dormitories, have changed and 2021. This amounts to more than 3
Restaurants, hotels, and resorts have dramatically over the past decade million households, according to five-
had to overcome massive hurdles since — no longer just a temporary home, year estimates from the Census Bureau.”1

S P E C I A L A DV E R T I S I N G S E C T I O N
CONTIN U IN G E D UC ATI ON

GLOSSARY
Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE):
A standard measurement of how efficiently a
furnace converts energy from the fuel it uses
into warm air for a building.

British Thermal Unit (Btu): A measure of

the heat content of fuel or energy sources;
the quantity of heat required to raise the
temperature of one pound of liquid water
by 1°F at the temperature that water has its
greatest density (approximately 39°F).

Fire Table: A fire product that is designed

to be a more permanent structure within the
landscape, although it can be portable.

Greenhouse Gas (GHG): Gases produced

by human activities that trap heat in the
atmosphere, including carbon dioxide,
methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons,
perfluorocarbons, and sulphur hexafluoride.

Major apartment developers focus on rooms, saunas, and meditation gardens Hydronic Snowmelt System: Heating system
amenity-packed buildings catering to into their properties and are incorporating installed on stairs, walkways, and driveways for
professionals making high wages, as lounge areas where residents can commercial businesses to melt snow and ice;
these renters by choice expect a living gather and relax, such as juice bars and may be fueled by propane.
situation that is ripe with wellness hydration centers.4 Paulee Halloran, vice
amenities and a community feel. president of asset management at Kairoi Permanent Patio Heater: A remote-controlled,

Residential, says, “We strive to provide ceiling-mounted infrared patio heater.

Community our residents with a feeling of community Portable Patio Heater: An outdoor heater,
Community has become particularly and design spaces that reinforce the often fueled by propane, that raises the
important postpandemic, with “demand idea that where they live is much more outdoor air temperature up to 25 degrees
for community-centered amenities than just a place to hang their hat. Fahrenheit with a perimeter of radiant heat
accelerating about six months after Fitness centers are the No. 1 amenity in that extends up to 25 feet in diameter.
the pandemic when people found multifamily. We’re taking things to the
themselves having to work from home,” next level with spaces for self-care and Propane: A nontoxic gas byproduct of natural
says Sergio Chidichimo of Birchstone physical recovery after a hard workout.”5 gas processing and oil refining that is used
Residential.2 For those renters or condo much like natural gas, providing fuel for space
owners seeking community, developers Outdoor Living heating, water heating, cooking, fireplaces,
are providing on-site cafes, group fitness Providing residents with a connection to power generation, and clothes drying.
classes in high-end gyms, and activities the outdoors is another important part of
Propane Boiler: High-efficiency boiler that
such as wine tastings and summer facility offerings connected to wellness.
serves a variety of space- and water-heating
concerts. “Developers aren’t just building The Global Wellness Institute says, “The
applications, including hydronic snowmelt
amenity spaces. They’re staying involved way people work, live, and socialize has
systems.
with their renter-by-choice residents changed dramatically for most of us
to evolve offerings — and create an during the pandemic. Newly embraced Tankless propane water heater: Compact
ongoing sense of real community.”3 lifestyle and workplace shifts, coupled water heater that does not have a storage
with an increasing focus on climate tank, allowing unit placement close to points
Wellness change, have opened the gates wider of use, improving hot water delivery time and
Wellness is another growing trend for investors, developers, and designers reducing waste; because the water is heated
spurred by the pandemic. Whereas to further explore design possibilities for when it's needed, tankless units provide a
developers largely focused on the this new paradigm.”6 Part of this trend is nearly endless supply of hot water and can be
“health” aspect of health and wellness in the blurring of lines between our internal combined into larger arrays for water output
the past, they are increasingly designing and external environments, and a deep rates of several hundred gallons per minute.
specific wellness areas such as massage integration with nature.

S P E C I A L A DV E R T I S I N G S E C T I O N
CONTIN U IN G E D UC ATI ON

Outdoor areas have become an CASE STUDY 1

integral part of our daily lives and well-
being, with people spending more time PATRICK HENRY COLLEGE, PURCELLVILLE, VIRGINIA
working, exercising, playing, and relaxing
outdoors. From traditional courtyards
and pools to resort-style terraces,
rooftop decks, community gardens, and
intimate gathering spots, developers
are offering a variety of outdoor areas
to separate their properties from the
competition and provide residents
the sense of community they crave.7
Multifamily Dive notes: “Being stuck at
home has brought everyone out. We
learned the benefits of biophilia during
the pandemic, but people want to get
outside, not just bring the outside in.
Shared courtyards, pool decks, rooftops,
and balconies become places that feel
like the public park or other space we
yearned for during COVID, but with the A bank of tankless water heating units can supply domestic hot water for large commercial facilities, minimizing
the likelihood of hot-water runouts or lukewarm water.
comfort of staying within your building
or complex, and private balconies In conjunction with the Propane Education & D1 [Mt. Vernon] in the last year! We never run
become yards and safe havens.”8 Research Council (PERC), Holtzman Propane, out of hot water and it’s always super hot.”
Multifamily Design+Construction’s and Rinnai tankless water heaters, faculty Hypothesis 2, that propane tankless water
2021 Multifamily Amenities Study ranks and students at Patrick Henry College in heaters cost less to operate than electric tanks
the top 131 amenities that developers Purcellville, Virginia, conducted a study to over a 10-year period, was proven as well.
are providing in today's apartment and explore student comfort levels after electric Ten-year ownership costs at the Mt. Vernon
condominium communities. Among water heaters were switched to propane dormitory were projected out based on
the findings is a ranking of the top 10 tankless in a student dormitory. In March 2020, propane tankless heaters’ original installation
outdoor amenities. “Fire pits (66.1%), Holtzman installed six Rinnai units and the cost versus electric tanks’ installation cost plus
lounge areas (64%), and covered parking research team set out to prove its hypothesis replacement after eight years. Energy costs
(55.3%) were cited most often by survey that propane tankless water heaters would and maintenance were also factored in, with
respondents, followed by rooftop deck/ solve the problem of students running out the total ownership cost of propane tankless
terrace (54.4%), outdoor pool (53.2%), of hot water, that they would save money, water heaters $18,688 lower.
and walking paths (49.4%). Outdoor and that propane emits fewer pollutants than Hypothesis 3, that propane emits fewer
kitchens (43.6%) and community electricity. The research was conducted from greenhouse gasses (GHGs) and other
gardens (31.6%) are also popular items.”9 March 2020 to February 2021 and included a pollutants than electricity, was also proven.
survey of 70 students in three dormitories. A 0.95 EF (energy factor) propane tankless
HOSPITALITY AMENITY TRENDS The water-heating system was designed water heater emitted 39% less nitrous oxide
The hospitality industry has gone to meet the dormitory’s hot-water demand (NOx) and 90% less sulfur oxide (SOx), and
through a major overhaul since the and included one 1,000-gallon underground had a 55% lower GHG ratio than a 1.00 EF
pandemic, when hotels saw guest levels propane tank and six Rinnai CU 199 units. It electric tank water heater.
drop to almost zero and restaurants took Holtzman three days to complete the job. The research team is now recommending
had to quickly pivot to provide take- Hypothesis 1, that Rinnai’s promise of endless a dormitory replacement strategy due to
hot water would solve student complaints benefits from the useful life of existing
of running out of hot water, was proven. tank systems and not wanting to wait
Students in the pilot dorm, Mt. Vernon, had for emergency replacement. Factors for
no complaints and noted improvements since replacement should be student quality of life
the previous year. Students in dorms with and the need for sufficient hot water, higher
electric tanks had higher incidents of hot- upfront costs justified by long-term savings,
water runouts and lukewarm water. One survey and lower emissions, which would benefit
respondent said, “It’s gotten so much better in Patrick Henry College as a whole.

S P E C I A L A DV E R T I S I N G S E C T I O N
CONTIN U IN G E D UC ATI ON

out and delivery or outdoor dining QUIZ

options. Interior designers specializing 1. The number of people renting by choice versus necessity ____ between 2016 and 2021.
in hospitality confirm a considerable A. Decreased C. Stayed the same
amount of thought has turned toward B. Increased D. Fell drastically
the exterior of establishments, as
2. Which multifamily housing trend was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic?
the pandemic forced the majority of
A. Community C. Outdoor living
restaurants and hotels to rethink their
B. Wellness D. All of the above
outdoor dining and lounging options.
3. What is the number one amenity in multifamily housing?
A. Meditation garden C. Rooftop pool
B. Fitness center D. On-site café

Whether sitting at a café table 4. According to Multifamily Design+Construction, the top outdoor amenity is which of the
following?
on a busy city street or dining A. Fire pit D. Rooftop deck/terrace
on a quiet balcony overlooking B. Lounge area E. Outdoor pool

the mountains, outdoor dining C. Covered parking

provides relief from the enclosed 5. According to the National Restaurant Association, what is the lowest temperature diners
say they’ll tolerate to eat outside without shelter or a heat source?
spaces and four walls of home
A. 50 C. 75
and office. Outdoor dining can B. 60.5 D. 75.5

be charming, relaxing, romantic, 6. At Jay Peak Resort in Vermont, the resort saved more than $_____ annually in the central

adventurous, exciting, or even boiler room alone and reduced the carbon footprint of the facility by nearly 900 metric
tons of CO2 per year by choosing a more efficient propane boiler system.
celebratory. For most, it is at
A. 50,000 C. 100,000
least a break from the norm. B. 75,000 D. 125,000

— The Kitchen Spot 7. Propane fireplaces provide _____ times the heating capacity of wood-burning models,
there’s no soot or ash to clean up, and no firewood to store.
A. Two C. Six
B. Three D. Nine
All-Year Al Fresco
8. High-efficiency propane fireplaces offer fireplace efficiency (FE) ratings of over _____
Al fresco dining is nothing new and has
percent, while wood-burning fireplaces have a fireplace efficiency rating of about
always had popular appeal, with The
_____ percent.
Kitchen Spot noting, “Traditionally, many
A. 15, 90 C. 90, 15
restaurants and foodservice operations
B. 75, 50 D. 95, 15
have offered outdoor seating, especially
where the outdoors have something 9. Which propane product can be portable but is often designed to be a more permanent
special to offer, such as great views or a structure within the landscape?
pleasant climate. But outdoor dining has A. Fireplace C. Fire table
recently become a much more important B. Fire pit D. Patio heater
element for any foodservice operation
10. Which propane product is proven to raise the outdoor air temperature up to 25 degrees
regardless of their service style or
Fahrenheit?
location. The pandemic of 2020 changed
A. Fireplace C. Fire table
the way many consumers think about
B. Fire pit D. Portable patio heater
indoor social gatherings, and it forced
operators outdoors to make up for lost
SPONSOR INFORMATION

Ä
This article continues on
http://go.hw.net/ARPERC723.
Go online to read the rest of the CEU The Propane Education & Research Council provides architects, engineers, builders, and other
course, complete the corresponding construction professionals with free and informative materials on propane and its applications,
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S P E C I A L A DV E R T I S I N G S E C T I O N
 Energy for Happier Clients
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 Residential Architect
Design Awards

call
for
entries

STANDARD ENTRY
CATEGORIES ($160)
1. Custom / Less Than 3,000
Square Feet
2. Custom / More Than 3,000
Square Feet
3. Renovation / Adaptive Reuse
(residential remodeling
and additions)
4. Restoration / Preservation
5. Multifamily Housing
6. Affordable Housing
7. Architectural Interiors
(build-outs, interior
renovations)
8. Specialized Housing
(SROs, shelters, student
housing, etc.)
9. Outbuilding
10. On the Boards
(any unbuilt residential
project not yet completed)

SPECIALTY ENTRY
CATEGORIES ($130)
11. Kitchen and Bath
12. Universal Dwelling Design
13. Architectural Design Detail
ELIGIBILITY RECOGNITION 14. New Approaches to Housing
Entries should be submitted by an architect or designer. Other Winners will be featured in the November/ and Specialty Homes
building industry professionals may submit projects on behalf of December 2023 issue of architect with
an architect or designer. Projects outside the U.S. are welcomed. expanded coverage online and promoted
Any home or project completed after Jan. 1, 2020, is eligible. through our social media channels.

QUESTIONS? HOW TO ENTER DEADLINES

email submit your work at regular August 11, 2023, 11:59 p.m. EDT
[email protected] radesignawards.com late September 8, 2023, 11:59 p.m. EDT
(will include a late fee of $50 / entry)

2022 award winner wanaka wedge house by actual architect co.; photo by lightforge
64 ARCHITECT, The Journal of The American Institute of Architects, July/August 2023

Editorial:
Architecture and
Climate Philanthropy
text by paul makovsky

When it comes to combating climate

change through philanthropy, the
architecture industry could be doing
so much more. A 2020 report from
the ClimateWorks Foundation, a
San Francisco–based nonprofit,
estimated that total charitable giving
by foundations and individuals
grew to $750 billion, of which only
$6 billion to $10 billion was focused
on climate change mitigation. That
means less than 2% of total global
philanthropic giving is dedicated to
this urgent cause.
Sure, there are amazing Irina Ursea and Silvia Niculae of ArhiPera spoke at re:arc institute’s Greenhouse Sessions
foundations in the architecture in Copenhagen. The two-day event brought together architects, designers, and activists
community like the Chicago- to discuss reimagining relationships with the natural environment.
based Graham Foundation, which
recently gave more than $500,000 to Plus, the Holcim Foundation’s The organization’s first round
organizations worldwide to support competition hands out $1,000,000 of grantees highlight practices
exhibitions, publications, and other in awards to designers and architects that support social participatory
public presentations that promote for projects that exemplify the most education, collective ownership,
architecture and design (and, in some innovative practice in sustainable and intersectional biodiversity and
cases, address climate change). This construction. This year’s winners climate care. Programa Vaca, for
year’s awardees include the fifth will be announced in November at a example, is a sustainable community-
edition of the Chicago Architecture ceremony at the Venice Biennale. construction platform that tackles
Biennial, a new traveling exhibition One new philanthropic initiative housing poverty in rural areas and
by the nonprofit ArchiteXX to watch is the re:arc institute, Indigenous territories in Mexico.
exploring the role of architecture which funds community efforts Another grant recipient, the group
in reproductive justice, and an that target the origins and effects ArhiPera, strives to better the living
exhibition inspired by the work of of climate change. Backed by the conditions of Romanian communities
architect Amaza Lee Meredith, to Interogo Foundation (which owns in severe poverty by building houses
name a few. IKEA), the Copenhagen-based through a participatory approach.
There are other programs worth organization endorses projects Considering that the architecture
paying attention to as well. The that focus on fighting climate industry is responsible for about 40%
courtesy re:arc institute

Harvard GSD Wheelwright Prize, crises “through the unique needs of carbon emissions, re:arc’s work
an open international competition, of place and community action,” is an exemplary model for funding
grants $100,000 to a young architect according to the group’s mission real-world projects that leverage
to support a design research project. statement, especially supporting architectural expertise to fight
This year’s winner, Jingru Cheng, is “hyper-local grassroots practices climate change—something we can
focusing on the economic, cultural, while centering the work of women, all learn from. I look forward to the
and ecological impacts of sand youth, and other historically announcement of the next round of
mining and land reclamation. underserved communities.” grantees in September.

> To read more of ARCHITECT’s editorials, visit bit.ly/AReditorial.

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 MINDS
OF STEEL Terri Meyer Boake, LEED AP, Professor
University of Waterloo School of Architecture

As her interest in construction increased, the beauty of architecturally exposed

structural steel captivated this acclaimed architect, professor, and author.

DISCOVER WHY STEEL INSPIRES HER

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