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Affordable Housing
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Juvenile Detention Home Revived As Green Home for Veterans
The historic landmark at 150 Otis Street in San Francisco, California has seen much in its lifetime. It was designed by architect Louis Mullgardt and built in 1916 as the City’s Juvenile Court and Detention Home. Throughout the years, it has served as an office for the City’s Department of Human Services, a storage space,…
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New Orlean’s First LEED NC-Silver Multi-Family Development
In just over two weeks, it will have been six-years since the the category-5 Hurricane Katrina crossed into the United States and rebuilding efforts continue to this day. New Orleans, Louisiana, was one of the hardest hit areas along the Gulf of Mexico. It received much attention from people across the country and many organizations…
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How Abode Communities Builds Green and Affordable
The recently completed Casa Dominguez affordable housing and community facility by Abode Communities is touted by the organization as innovative. Upon a recent site walk and visit, I can say that its innovation lies not only in it’s unique program but also lurks unseen, behind it’s walls, beneath it’s ground, and above it’s roof. The…
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A Success Story: Healthy Homes, Neighborhood Revitalization, and L.A. County’s First Graywater Irrigation System
Is it possible to build multi-family housing without air conditioning in Southern California where the weather averages high 70s F in the daytime for most of the year? With smart building design, it is definitely possible to do so. During their building walk-throughs in the middle of the October heat wave of 2009, the developer’s…
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Laundry Facility Reincarnated as the First LEED Certified Residential Building in Northern California
Why would a developer save part of an unreinforced brick building when it has no historical value and would cost more money to save than to demolish it? Because saving one façade would help provide an extra layer of interest to the design of the building, preserve the fabric of existing store fronts, and retain…
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Affordable Housing Project Incorporates Largest Residential Solar Photovoltaic System in San Francisco
What do you do when your project has close to 40,000 square foot of roof space in one city block, good sun exposure, and no shading impediments? Go solar, of course, and generate your own electricity with a renewable energy source. Mosaica, one of the largest green, mixed-use projects located in San Francisco, California, boasts…
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Maximizing the Green Footprint: How Much Green Impact Can You Make?
In our article The Story of the Fireside: Seeing the Green in Value Engineering, we discussed how value engineering helps one take a systematic approach to evaluating a building system or product from different perspectives. This feature takes a closer look at the three types of green product categories and how you can evaluate them.…
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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…