Scoring with Sustainability

There’s no denying that sustainability offers not only a winning strategy for environmental protection but for the reduction of operation costs as well. As such, many sports organizations like the NFL and MLB have put their own colors aside in recent years to jump on board with the “green team” and renovate America’s stadiums to feature a variety of technologies for clean energy.

 
Most recently, plans were announced this week for a solar installation at FedExField, home of the Washington Redskins. Design firm DLR Group and NRG Energy will collaborate to install 8,000 panels across 850 spaces in the stadium’s Platinum A1 Parking Lot—which will generate up to two megawatts (MW) of electricity—and about 200 translucent solar panels will be placed on the exterior of the NRG entry plaza at Gate A pedestrian entry ramp. The plaza entrance also will house two sculptures of football players created with thin film solar technology to produce even more energy for the stadium.

Additionally, 10 electric vehicle charging stations from NRG’s eVgo^sm charging network will be added to the grounds and kiosks in parking lot A1 and the NRG entry plaza on the west corner of FedExField will provide fans with information about renewable energy and NRG clean energy solutions. The project will be complete this September in time for the 2011 NFL football season.

 
Also set for a September completion is an energy-saving endeavor which will allow Lincoln Financial Field, home to the Philadelphia Eagles, to become the world’s first sports stadium to fully convert to self-generated renewable energy. Solar Blue will cover the stadium’s façade with 2,500 solar panels, set 80 20-foot wind turbines atop the stadium rim, and operate a 7.6 megawatt onsite dual-fuel cogeneration plant to save an estimated $60 million in energy costs. All of the technologies will be controlled via an executed monitoring and switching technology.

 
The Seattle Seahawks announced in May that they are striving to decrease their carbon footprint, too. Solyndra solar panels will be installed by McKinstry to the roof of Qwest Field. The thin-film, tube-shaped CIGS (copper, indium, gallium, and selenide) solar cells will cover 2½ acres (80 percent) of the stadium. Light reflecting off the stadium’s existing “cool roof”—which serves to reduce heat absorption—should add to the production of electricity as it is captured by the new panels. Qwest Field’s utility costs are expected to shrink by 21 percent. The project expects completion sometime this summer.

 
Solar Blue has also held a relationship with the Boston Red Sox. GroSolar installed a solar thermal system manufactured by Heliodyne Incorporated on the roof of Fenway Park’s fifth floor media level in 2008. Thirty-seven percent of the gas used for heating is offset by the system, avoiding 18 tons of CO2 emissions. (The amount of emissions conserved can be compared to not driving a car for 43,611 miles!) Solar Blue is now considered the official energy conservation partner of the baseball team and Fenway Park.

 
Across the country from the Red Sox lies the first existing ballpark to attain LEED Silver status, San Francisco’s AT&T Park. In 2007, Solar Design Associates was commissioned by the Giants baseball team to install 590 Sharp solar panels to supply energy to Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) customers in the San Francisco area. The stadium’s Diamond Vision scoreboard also is sustainable—it uses 78 percent less energy than the ballpark's original scoreboard.

It’s great to see that sporting venues are picking up the pace on sustainable design, especially since they hold such a prominent spot in the public eye. But it seems that these types of projects still have a long way to go when it comes to transitioning to the greener side of the fence. Why do you think stadiums have been so slow to renovate to decrease their carbon footprint? What can designers do to encourage facility managers and team owners to invest in green design?

--Raysha Armbrustmacher

Have an iPad? There’s a Design App for That!

 By Douglas Wittnebel,  AIA,  LEED AP, Principal, Gensler

I have always been a sketchbook architect and artist. As such, I have been documenting my excursions to places around the world in journals, moleskins, sketch tablets, and even on napkins. But more recently, these more traditional surfaces for my scrawling have given way to a new tool in my arsenal--selected digital experiments with the iPad.

The daily tasks of the architect and designer in today’s business environment include the creation and development of ideas, as well as finding new ways to illustrate and capture that process of creation.  As an architect and an artist, I dedicate time and effort to keep up-to-date with these new innovations that have been released to the public, and I was fortunate earlier this year to gain access to an iPad. It since has become a daily (and nightly) companion on my journey to experiment with the wonderful range of applications for drawing, sketching, and designing on a digital tablet format.

I am finding that new avenues of opportunity come with the ability to create a mixture of digital drawings and migrating these drawing stages from one app to the next.  The top seven apps that I currently am testing and using for drawing, sketching, and creating are:

 
1. Brushes  - features a versatile app and (best of all) the actions will playback all of the brushstroke sequences. It's a delight to the eye, and to the client, when viewing on the iPad or on the big screen.

2. Inspirepro - is a kind of a quirky brushstroke app that has its own signature style. It's good for quick sketches and expressive gesture captures.

 
3. Artstudio - is a versatile range of tools and layering menus gives the designer a lot to work with and a lot of possibilities for exploring new styles.

4. Doddlebuddy -  has a simple, easy-to-use interface with a quick response time. It's very intuitive to use. Start with this one and you will move on to more apps.

5. Inkpad - is a big favorite for those Illustrator fans and devotees (like myself), and allows the user to create wonderfully flat and crisp shapes and forms with overlapping layers.

 
6. Artrage - offers a remarkable range of brushes and textures, and provides the closest likeness to a “real” palette knife approach in applying liquid media to a canvas. It's a visual delight. http://www.artrage.com/

 
7. Sketchbook pro - is advanced and versatile, holding lots of promise. It hints that more will be coming soon. I can spend hours developing design ideas with this application.

When you put the time and energy into exploring these and other apps, you come to realize the real “virtual” scenario is a mobile digital sketchbook, allowing the architect, designer, and artist to create in new and wonderful spaces and times.

While it is impossible to predict what will happen next on this creative journey, I for one am looking forward to these new tablet formats and applications that will extend the mixture of analog and digital drawing and painting. 

 

Douglas Wittnebel,  AIA,  LEED AP, is a principal for Gensler, based in San Ramon, Calif. His sketches and drawings can be viewed on his blog at http://www.drawingontheworld.blogspot.com/.

Pumpkin Carving Goes Posh at Allsteel

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays (I’m the type of person who starts planning her costume for the following year as soon as November 1 hits), so I was thrilled to receive a media release this morning from Allsteel, which detailed the office furniture manufacturer’s fourth annual Posh Pumpkin contest, sponsored by Office Environments International, Inc. Held last week at the Allsteel Resource Center in Washington, D.C., the competition asked design firms to showcase their best creative pumpkin carvings across a variety of themes, including iconic architects, sea life, and cartoons. (What fun!) Firms entered for a chance to be named the Best in Show and take home a coveted iPad for each team member.

 
Envision Design garnered the top prize for its collection of carved architect silhouettes that featured a ghoulish twist, which included “Frank Llyod Fright” and “Mies van Scare Crow” (above).

 
Burt Hill took first placed in the carved category for its spin on “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” (above), which included mini pumpkin spiders; while Hickok Cole Architects was the runner up in that category with its “’Vincent Van Ghoul’s’ Scary Night" pumpkin (below).

 
Wisnewski Blair & Associates, winner of the 2009 Posh Pumpkin contest, was awarded first place in the painted category for its “Under the Sea” design that showcased a “Blow Fish,” a coral reef, and sea horse pumpkin/gourd scene (above); while HDR, Inc. created an M&M family (below).

How does your firm get into the Halloween spirit each year? Share your stories and photos with us below!

--Stacy Straczynski

NeoCon® Product Wars is 'Da Bomb'

A war is brewing at NeoCon® 2010—and it’s happening all online. Contract magazine and Designer Pages today launched their new online tool which provides event attendees and A&D online users the chance to cast their own vote for the products deserving to win this year’s Best of NeoCon® Award. It’s the first of it’s kind for the industry.

The tool functions much like other “this or that” voting tools found online and on social media sites like Facebook (e.g. “Hot or Not,” “Rate Your Friends,” etc), allowing users to continuously choose the “best” of two same-category product options. Users can vote as many times as they want in five categories: Carpet/Modular Tiles; Conference Room Furniture; Furniture Systems; Seating/Conference; and Seating/Sofas & Lounge.

Read more about Product Wars at ContractDesign.Com and take part at my.neocon.com/best-of-neocon

It’s time to “forget voting for presidential candidates. Screw your civic duties and vote for the best products instead!”

--Stacy Straczynski

Attention Work-not-aholics!

By Gillian Wong, Editorial Intern

 Disguised as a gigantic book printed with Chinese characters, the Workaholic Pillow is actually a doublewide foam pillow that moulds to your head. Conveniently made into the format of a book, the Workaholic Pillow can be placed onto your office bookshelf, while your space retains that professional air that you took so long to create.

Unfortunately for true pretenders, the design is more appropriate for laughs than for deception: your boss may start suspecting something’s up if he or she sees the word “workaholic” printed on the back cover of this so-called book—or see that the pages you’re seemingly reading have no words on.

Of course, one could argue that the Workaholic Pillow is still comfortable to sleep on—desks can be very hard on the head.

However, the Pillow is a terrible 5,600 yen, or approximately $63.00. Surely there can be a cheaper way to get a giggle? And at a mere $24.99, you can get a decent pillow from Sealy too.

You can buy the Workaholic Pillow at geekstuff4u.com

Barbie goes to Shanghai

How do you celebrate the 50th birthday of an American icon? For Barbie, it's a trip to Shanghai. Recently, Mattel opened House of Barbie, the world's first Barbie-centric store in Shanghai, a 40,000-sq.-ft. ode to the plastic icon. Designed by New York-based Slade Architecture, the store houses the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of Barbie dolls and offers, of course, a huge range of Barbie products, services and activities. 

The two-layer façade references Barbic packaging, with a little decorative arts and architectural iconography thrown in. A feminine lattice patter of Barbie-trademarked iconography is printed on the exterior glass and the patterning is reinforced by interior, formed panels. Inside, of course, is a whole lotta pink and pearlescent surfaces. The central element is a three-story spiral staircase that encloses over 800 Barbie dolls. The result: everything, literally, revolved around Barbie.

Also included in the mix:

- The Barbie Design Center, designed by Chute Gerdeman Retail, where visitors get a glimpse into how to design a Barbie doll by selecting their own looks and walking out with their own Barbie.

- The Barbie Fashion Stage, also done by Chute Gerdeman Retail, where visitors can take part in a runway show, choosing their own outfits and receiving hair and makeup treatment.

- The Barbie Café, a restaurant and gelato bar which serves, of course, Barbie-inspired concoctions.

- A full-service spa (!)....still to come later this year.

Hardly child's play

While we normally focus solely on commercial design, we couldn't pass this by: The PBS show Design Squad recently held a competition called Trash to Treasure. Co-sponsored by Intel, the competition challenged kids to design entirely new products from discarded items and materials. The entries had to move things or people, protect the environment, or be played with inside or outdoors. 

Here's the part us social responsibility nuts love: The winner was 12-year-old Max Wallack, who crafted The Home Dome, temporary housing for those in need of shelter, out of packing peanuts and plastic bags. The dome is anchored by a built-in bed that uses the weight of the dome's occupant to anchor the structure. 

Even more fun, as part of his prize, he got a trip to the Newton, Mass. offices of Continuum (the minds behind a bevy of products, including Allsteel's Acuity Chair), to build a prototype. Check it out:

We Care....

This past week, Contract happily joined the New York design community for Herman Miller's annual We Care event. Here's a glimpse at the fun and a game of sorts: Who can spot Contract editorial director Jennifer Busch?