GAB Report library
Featured
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Don Hisaka, FAIA: Architect, Mentor, and Friend
Earlier this year, an architect very dear to my heart peacefully passed away at his home in Berkeley, California. The late Don M. Hisaka, a world renowned architect, was my professor at UC Berkeley, a former boss, a long-time mentor, and a friend who taught me many things about life. During the twenty plus years…
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Wind Turbines Ride the Wave to Renewable Energy Future
Editor’s Foreword: Earlier this year, the first full-scale prototype of a revolutionary floating support structure for offshore wind turbines made its debut off the coast of Aguçadoura, Portugal. It was inaugurated and celebrated by Portuguese government officials, clean-tech investors, and its engineers and builders. Each floating support structure, known as the WindFloat*, is a three-column…
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Ecobuild, What Happened to Green Innovation?
I only attended the last two days of Ecobuild in London this year. On the first day there, I was fully absorbed in finding the booths that shouted “this is the Landscape Architecture section,” never really bothering to slow down and take a look around. I found very few booths representing the field of landscape…
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Fallingwater Goes Digital
It’s pretty neat to see a friend featured in the New York Times. This February, NYT reporter Steven Kurutz interviewed Tim Sakamoto, my long-time friend and fellow alum from the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design (CED). The interview focused on his latest product, the Frank Lloyd Wright–Fallingwater mobile app. The What: Let’s call it…
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Drawing More Power Than You Think
Energy efficient building design has come a long way to improve building system energy performance. But what happens when the users move in? Additional equipment and appliances added after occupancy can dramatically impact actual building performance with surprising and expensive results. Plug loads and process loads have been long considered outside the design team’s scope…
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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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Exploratorium’s New Home Addresses Historic Preservation Design and Construction Challenges
When I was working as a construction manager, I was involved with a handful of complex historic preservation projects including the conversion of a historically significant church into affordable housing (Buena Vista Terrace) for seniors and the renovation of a small historic landmark (The Fireside) into a community center. Historic preservation often presents additional challenges…
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Find Your Ecopath to Cleanliness
Having been raised in an Asian household, I was trained to remove my shoes upon entering a home so that I wouldn’t track in any dirt and debris. I have maintained this ritual throughout my life and most recently learned that many Canadian and Swiss households do the same thing. Less debris equals less floor…
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San Francisco Exploratorium’s New Home to Become Largest U.S. Net-Zero Energy Museum
Salty air breezes off of the Bay. Seagulls are flying about. A six foot diameter concrete pile gets driven into the sea floor. An energizing hum of activity reverberates throughout a waterfront construction site–the future new home of San Francisco’s Exploratorium. In October of 2010, the Exploratorium–the Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception, broke…
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Energy Strategy Brings About ROI for Santa Clara University
Few universities can claim to have a 1-megawatt solar PV system, a wind turbine, a 60-collector solar thermal system, and a smart microgrid system that monitors and regulates the campus energy sources. Santa Clara University isn’t afraid of experimenting with renewable, clean technology that will help it work towards achieving reduced energy consumption and climate…