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The Story of The Fireside: Seeing the Green in Value Engineering
Value engineering. The term often evokes trimming down a project. However, used properly, it can be a positive tool that helps one take a systematic approach to evaluating a building system or product from different perspectives. In the realm of greening a project, value engineering is an important part of the decision making process. Value…
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Mosaica: A Sustainable Community
Years ago, I came upon a bustling weekend flea market situated on a lot disfigured by broken concrete and asphalt, and anchored by a dilapidated warehouse structure in the middle of the site. Who would have thought that I would end up as the construction manager working for the developer who gave the site a…
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The Story of The Fireside: Green, Affordable Housing
Right off of California Highway 101 and along the way to Stinson Beach, there sits a project “that could.” It accomplished many feats over the course of its development. As the construction manager on this project, I’ll be sharing my insight on the project’s green building process over a series of articles. Almost ten years…
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The First Green Replacement for the Concrete Block
Four years ago, I asked a contractor and architect whether or not there exist concrete masonry units (CMU) with recycled content. “CMU is CMU, just use the standard specs,” they said. Fast forward to 2009, while speed-walking through the exhibit aisles at the 2009 Green California Summit and Exposition, I came upon Integrity Block. The…
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Berkeley’s Latest Super-Green Project
During my student days at U.C. Berkeley, my friends and I would go to the Great China Restaurant for dinner and the California Theaters for a movie. Along the way, there was a big parking lot which was often viewed as an eye-sore. More than 10 years later, this lot has been transformed into two…
