DC JUST GOT GREENER WITH THE LARGEST EVER WIND POWER DEAL BY A US CITY

The DC government will now get 35% of its energy directly from a wind farm in Pennsylvania. Go DC!

The city had already purchased 100% of its power through Renewable Energy Certificates which offsets green energy and this new agreement will change so that more than a 1/3 of that power comes directly from a green source.

“Directly sourcing renewable power costs 30 percent less than fossil fuel-based sources, reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 100,000 tons, and protects our city from volatile energy price increases,” said Mark Chambers, Sustainability and Energy Management Director at the DGS. “Put another way, over its 20-year span, this deal removes the same amount of carbon from our atmosphere as planting 44 million trees, or removing 18,000 cars from the road every year.”

Mayor Muriel Bowser said: “The District is well on its way to achieving the Sustainable DC goal of using renewables to satisfy 50% of DC’s energy supply by 2032.”

See more at GlobeNewswire. See the Sustainable DC 2nd Year Progress Report.

ATTEND: HAPPY HOUR EVENT AT MAPLE ON 11TH ST FOR SOCIAL IMPACT DESIGN

Patio at Maple

Join Inscape Publico and AFHdc Tuesday July 28, 2015 for a relaxing and enjoyable evening on Maple’s back patio to socialize and learn about Inscape Publico’s latest project, the St. John’s Episcopal School in Honduras. AFHdc Directors will announce their new chapter subcommittees and share other updates from the international chapter network. You won’t want to miss this great networking event with leaders in Social Impact Design in DC!

RSVP for the event here. Can’t make the event but still want to learn more and/or contribute to the school in Honduras? Check out Inscape Publico’s Crowdrise campaign.

Inscape Publico is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit architecture firm with the mission to provide professional architecture service for other nonprofits and the people they serve. Their understanding of the nonprofit community not only fosters excellence in design, but creates architecture that represents the vision, goals and sensibilities of each of its nonprofit partners. Inscape Publico serves as a catalyst and jumpstarts nonprofit projects by providing valuable visioning sessions and design services through a unique business model to help nonprofits understand their design needs to meet their goals and aspirations.

AFHdc is a volunteer organization that works to solve social justice issues through sustainable design. Formerly operating for 10 years as the DC Chapter of Architecture for Humanity, AFHdc has provided pro bono design services for organizations locally and abroad.

“GREAT ARCHITECTURE TO GREAT EFFECT”

Jordan MacTavish via Harvard Magazine

Check out this article discussing public interest design past, present, and future, in Harvard Magazine’s March-April 2015 issue by Stephanie Garlock. (Thanks for sharing Public Architecture!)

Quotes from the article:

“When it [architecture] only becomes about sculpture, it loses the key asset of architecture, which is that it can add tremendous value to people’s lives.” – Michael Murphy

“I became very interested in the opportunities that the design of the built environment had for achieving social outcomes.” – John Peterson

“If you can find what the aspirations of a community are, and you can use the design process to bring that forward, then you can do extraordinary things with your discipline.” – Maurice Cox

HOMELESS FACILITY IN COLUMBIA HEIGHTS

Built on the site of a former halfway house across the street from the popular Columbia Heights Target, is a new prototype for homeless facilities by Studio Twenty Seven Architecture and Leo A Daly JV. The ground level is open and inviting with studio units on the upper floors.

LA CASA is a new prototype for homeless care in the Nation’s Capital. Rather than function as a shelter, where clients are housed at night and asked to leave during the day, La Casa provides round-the-clock permanent housing for forty men. Each living unit is designed as a single person efficiency. This permanent housing will provide stability and predictability for the men as they re-immerse themselves into day-to-day living. Permanent Supportive Housing is a significant step in the transition from full time care to independent living.

THE CHAPTER NETWORK (FORMER AFH CHAPTERS) HIRES A TRANSITION COORDINATOR!

map of the chapter network

When the Architecture for Humanity headquarters announced they were filing for bankruptcy last January, many of their local Architecture for Humanity chapters were taken by surprise. Instead of closing up shop like their parent office, these community-based AFH chapters banded together and decided to stay open and continue to serve their communities around the world.

Not only have they shown their resiliency by continuing on, these chapters have decided to rebuild an organization that better supports the needs of their volunteers and communities. The first major step was establishing a steering committee representing chapter leaders from each region worldwide. The second major step was announced last week, they have hired a transition coordinator! Alicia Breck is a strategist who works with government and not-for-profit organizations involved in city resilience and socio-economic development. She will be working closely with Garrett Jacobs, Acting Chair, and the rest of the steering committee.

See more information on the Chapter Network website. Stay in touch with the DC Chapter – mattj@afh-dc.org

WEEKEND IN RICHMOND – ACD CONFERENCE

image from the ACD website

The Association for Community Design will host their annual conference in Richmond, VA this year, from June 25-28. Titled ‘Neighbors’ the schedule includes two full days of tours, talks, and breakout sessions. Note that the dates are conveniently on a Friday and Saturday for those who want to limit time away from the office…and spend the weekend in a fun city like Richmond.

Established in 1977, the Association for Community Design (ACD) is a network of individuals, organizations, and institutions committed to increasing the capacity of planning and design professions to better serve communities. ACD serves and supports practitioners, educators, and organizations engaged in community-based design and planning.co

Registration closes June 12th. Register here.

APPALACHIAN ELEGANCE – DESIGN/BUILDLAB’S SHARON FIELDHOUSE

Photos by Jeff Goldberg/Esto

Virginia Tech students and their teachers, Keith and Marie Zawistowski, designed and built the Sharon Fieldhouse in the historic rail town of Clifton Forge. As part of the Design/BuildLAB, an experiential learning program at the Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design, the teachers have developed a relationship with Clifton Forge and have built several projects there. Students collaborate with the community in order to create architecture that benefits the common good. As the group states on their webpage, they want students to understand the value of design and “make a difference in the life of a community”.

NEA SOCIAL IMPACT DESIGN WEBINAR SERIES

Katie Swenson, the Vice President of national design initiatives at Enterprise Community Partners, will host the next webinar for the NEA’s Social Impact Design webinar series. This panel discussion, titled Social Impact Design NOW: Women in Design: We Are Not Missing, will ask women in the field of social impact design – How can we leverage networks to cultivate a culture of creativity for women in social impact design? Who is doing the work, and how are they doing it?

Enterprise is based in Columbia, MD, and is widely known for affordable housing and is also the organizer of the prestigious Rose Architectural Fellowship which partners early-career architectural designers with local community development organizations, where they facilitate an inclusive approach to development to create green, sustainable, and affordable communities.

Register for the webinar this Wednesday at 3:00pm. Read Katie Swenson’s blog post to learn about the webinar.

DESIGN COMPETITION SURVEY

Van Alen Institute

The Van Alen Institute ran a survey to get feedback on improving design competitions. It is interesting to see that 4 out of the 10 propositions for improvement have to do with public interest design and the value of design.

1. Show the value of good design. Designers want more compensation for the time and resources put into a competition entry. Van Alen calls for recognition of the labor and money spent annually on design competitions, as a means of monitoring “how much value design creates.” The institute recommends the mandatory disclosure of time and associated costs of every competition entry.

5. Go beyond beautiful objects. Cultural institutions considering or organizing competitions should do so with the intent of addressing “a pressing cultural, ecological, or social issue.”

8. Make it public. The statement that “[e]veryone knows that public engagement, when structured well, helps produce better design” may be bold, yet it is illogical to produce proposals without consultation with the people who will ultimately interact with them.

9. Give young designers what they want. Student and and emerging designers are more likely to desire interdisciplinary collaboration, public engagement, and design for “underserved communities”, survey results found.

See the rest at ArchDaily.

LEED’S SOCIAL EQUITY CREDITS

Did you know that you can earn LEED points through community engagement?! The “Social Equity within the Community” pilot credit, which USGBC launched last year, says projects can earn 1 point through three different methods. The methods listed are to either complete the SEED Evaluator Parts 1 and 2, achieve Enterprise Green Communities Certification, or have the project team create community engagement of their own.

This is a pilot credit so show your support for it by using it on your next project. Other social equity pilot credits are “Social Equity within the Project Team” and “Social Equity within the Supply Chain”. USGBC has been focused on just one aspect of sustainability, the environment. It’s good to see LEED expanding to address the triple bottom line.

See details at USGBC. Read more at Architectural Record.