Environmental Design Commons^™

Australia's First 6-Star Green Education Building: Design And Performance, Jim Smith, George Earl

Jim Smith

Bond University's Mirvac School of Sustainable Development is one where planning, property, project management, construction management and quantity surveying are integrated in a school of the urban environment in the context of sustainable development. The School is the first designated institute to fully integrate environmental, urban planning, property development, quantity surveying, construction management and facilities management disciplines with the practical issues of managing economic and social viability with societal expectations.The goal was to blend together these three aspects: ecological sustainability – indoor environment quality, transport, water, materials, emissions, land use and ecology - closely linked to economic and social sustainability.The …

Umass Amherst Campus Green Building Resources, Ludmilla D. Pavlova-Gillham

Ludmilla D Pavlova

UMass Amherst is a STARS Gold institution that has received numerous awards for its sustainability efforts in higher education. To celebrate the physical elements of the campus sustainability achievements, and to inform campus staff, faculty and students how to support green building projects, Campus Planning and Design & Construction sponsored a presentation to the campus community on Campus Green Building Resources: LEED and Beyond. Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham, Senior Campus Planner reviews the commitment UMass Amherst has made to sustainable design and construction and the range of sustainability/LEED resources available to campus staff, faculty and students as they work on planning, designing …

Umass Amherst Green Building Guidelines 2013, Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham, Ted Mendoza, Ezra Small, Patricia O'Flaherty, Nariman Mostafavi, Mohamed Farzinmoghadam, Somayeh Tabatabaee Pozveh

Ludmilla D Pavlova

Facilities & Campus Services, Sustainable UMass and Campus Planning support sustainability and energy conservation initiatives by providing in-house resources to campus staff as well as designers and contractors working with the University. The UMass Amherst Green Building Guidelines provide a framework for approaching new construction and major renovation projects at UMass Amherst that are undergoing LEED certification by focusing the conversation on green building aspects that are most important to the campus. They are intended to be the beginning of a dynamic conversation between designers, environmental consultants and constructors, university stakeholders, and users of new high performance buildings.

Making Better Decisions About Built Assets: Learning By Doing, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Climate change presents significant challenges to society (e.g. Stern, 2006; Bouwer and Aerts, 2006). Many have concluded that climate change is the most important problem facing humankind, and indeed other life on Earth. The construction industry, which contributes 5-10% of national GDP globally, has a prominent role to play in meeting this challenge given that the built environment demands 40-50% of global resources and generates a proportional amount of waste (Langston and Ding, 2001). Climate change adaptation is about human response to this challenge, thus mitigating the impacts of a changing climate (Burton et al., 2005).

Our Own Private Sustainable Community: Are Green Covenants, Conditions, And Restrictions A Viable Alternative To A More Environmentally Sustainable Future For Homeowners?, Darren Prum, Robert Aalberts

Darren A. Prum

Residential and commercial property owners have sought for centuries to develop and enrich their physical environment through private land use planning. In more recent decades, residential owners residing in community interest communities have been particularly active in crafting an evolving array of deed restrictions contained in Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions( CC&R’s). CC&R’s, which are generally created by the CIC developer , are mutually binding and enforceable against all those who live or conduct business in self-selected residential subdivisions or commercial developments . Importantly, CC&R’s are monitored sometimes quite forcefully, under the watchful eye of an empowered planned development association.

Although …

Synergistic Green Networks To Transform Lonsdale Suburbia, Archana Sharma

Archana Sharma

No abstract provided.

From The Quadrangle To The River: Revitalizing The Heart Of Downtown Springfield, Mary F. Dehais, Yuanfang Gong, John E. Hulsey, Pamela Jo Landi, Adam G. Monroy, Seth A. Morrow, Alexander G. Seib, Jie Su, Kate A. Tooke, Owen M. White, Emily S. Wright, Kuang Xin, Xiao Zhou

Mary Dehais

This studio report explores community service learning in the graduate urban design studio taught in the in Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and instructed by Professor Frank Sleegers. The project will began with a visioning workshop, conducted to engage community members in the shaping of project goals and objectives within the project area of downtown Springfield. These findings were brought to the studio and guided the design process and outcomes. Five design teams developed five alternative master plans for the core area of downtown Springfield with focus on the revitalization of open …

In Third Parties We Trust? The Growing Antitrust Impact Of Third-Party Green Building Certification Systems For State And Local Governments, Darren Prum, Robert Aalberts, Stephen Del Percio

Darren A. Prum

According to the American Institute of Architects, there has been a 50 percent increase in the number of municipalities with a green building program in place since 2007. And 24 of the country's 25 largest metropolitan areas are built around a city with green building legislation on its books. Reducing buildings' environmental impact is a noble - and critical - goal. But governments' reliance on private, third-party standard-setting organizations - and the rating systems that they promulgate - as the basis for that legislation may be legally problematic.

This Article reviews one of those potentially problematic bases: antitrust. In order …

From The Quadrangle To The River: Revitalizing The Heart Of Downtown Springfield, Mary F. Dehais, Yuanfang Gong, John E. Hulsey, Pamela Jo Landi, Adam G. Monroy, Seth A. Morrow, Alexander G. Seib, Jie Su, Kate A. Tooke, Owen M. White, Emily S. Wright, Kuang Xin, Xiao Zhou

jie su

This studio report explores community service learning in the graduate urban design studio taught in the in Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and instructed by Professor Frank Sleegers. The project will began with a visioning workshop, conducted to engage community members in the shaping of project goals and objectives within the project area of downtown Springfield. These findings were brought to the studio and guided the design process and outcomes. Five design teams developed five alternative master plans for the core area of downtown Springfield with focus on the revitalization of open …

Designing For Future Building Adaptive Reuse Using Adaptstar, Sheila Conejos, Craig Langston

Sheila Conejos

Designing future buildings with embedded adaptive reuse potential is a useful criterion for sustainability. Adaptive reuse is an emerging and significant design strategy that supports global climate protection and emissions reduction. Building adaptive reuse is a viable alternative to demolition and replacement; it entails less energy and waste, and can offer social benefits by revitalizing familiar landmarks and giving them a new lease of life. This paper describes the development of a new rating tool known as adaptSTAR, suitable for assessing future adaptive reuse potential at the time a building is designed. This paper reports on the methodology used to …

Designing For Future Building Adaptive Reuse Using Adaptstar, Sheila Conejos, Craig A. Langston

Craig Langston

Designing future buildings with embedded adaptive reuse potential is a useful criterion for sustainability. Adaptive reuse is an emerging and significant design strategy that supports global climate protection and emissions reduction. Building adaptive reuse is a viable alternative to demolition and replacement; it entails less energy and waste, and can offer social benefits by revitalizing familiar landmarks and giving them a new lease of life. This paper describes the development of a new rating tool known as adaptSTAR, suitable for assessing future adaptive reuse potential at the time a building is designed. This paper reports on the methodology used to …

The Sustainability Implications Of Building Adaptive Reuse, Craig A. Langston

Craig Langston

Building adaptive reuse is an important global topic. In the context of sustainable development and the effects of climate change caused by previous disregard for our environment, adaptive reuse has significant implications. This paper aims to examine how the construction industry can reposition itself to increase focus on the revitalization of existing buildings as an alternative to demolition and replacement. The paper reports on current research undertaken in Australia as part of a nationally-funded program in collaboration with industry, proposes a new model for early identification of adaptive reuse potential, tests this model with case study data, and looks at …