Want a ready-to-bake project? The American Institute of Architects has done a great job executing on their vision of assembling a listing of what it calls “stalled” projects. They currently have over 30 projects nationwide, and the AIA serves as matchmaker if you want to inquire about a project. Accessing the database requires that you [...]

As an architect and designer, I’m very interested in cultivating my knowledge of choices or strategies I can call upon in projects of various scales and types. As we are collectively aging in place, so are our commercial buildings, our schools, homes and service buildings. In 2011 we face yet another spiking and upward trending [...]

I am sharing with you today the results of the recent Strategic Workplace Survey I conducted earlier this quarter. Thanks to all of you who participated! I did the survey to do a number of things. I wanted to test out the surveymonkey.com online survey process with a goal of shedding light on issues shaping the design and operation [...]

On March 31, the MIT Center for Real Estate Alumni Association will again host its “The Case” graduate student competition. This competition has produced some of the best student work I have ever seen, and it’s very exciting that the field of students and schools represented has expanded from last year. “The Case” pits teams of [...]

Basically Christchurch’s heritage has gone, but that does not mean that the buildings cannot be rebuilt in the same style, but better to stand up to time and mother earth. Imagine New Christchurch, renamed as that, at every City block the glass in the newly rebuilt buildings will change to a different colour of the [...]

Every year in February there are two things I count on. One is heavy snowstorms. Two is the annual Efficiency Vermont Better Buildings by Design Conference held in Burlington, VT at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center.
The two day conference is jam-packed with many of my favorite business people, building design, construction pros, suppliers and [...]

Residential Architect Magazine editor, S. Claire Conroy, wrote in the November/December 2010 issue on architects and social media. The following response to that article has broader implications to the need for architects and the industry to see the positive potential that social media offers society.
Ms. Conroy,
Your observations in your piece “Publish or Perish” are well taken, [...]

Washington, DC is now joining the group of jurisdictions where parking ratios for new developments are going from required minimum ratios to maximum allowable ratios. This is being done to reduce the car-centricity of District residents and those who work there. Developers are collectively breathing a sigh of relief and celebrating, as the cost to [...]

What does next year hold for homeowners, residential building and design professionals? Well there’s good news for the remodeling side of the equation, and not so good news yet for new residential construction of various kinds. However, in general, smaller is better with a strong focus on green and sustainable design features with better organized, [...]

Mr. Zeller writes in his NY Times “Green” Blog post “When Green Building Is Not Green Enough” that “The nation’s building stock plays a bigger role in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions than many Americans might realize.”  This is only true (a) because many Americans have chosen to ignore information that has been widely available [...]