Sustainable Design Publications

"What was once a niche market has exploded into mainstream almost overnight, especially in Florida,"
-Brian Lomel , PE, LEED® AP, CxA

 


Major props to Michael Sheerin, Jim Ferris, Dick Worth, Steve Kemp, Gerald Versluys, and Mark Gelfo, whose articles appear in the latest issue of Consulting-Specifying Engineer magazine. Michael, Jim, Dick, Steve and Gerald joined forces on a 6-page story, “Be Prepared: Hospital Protection for Catastrophic Events,” that profiles All Children’s, Queen’s Medical Center, Mat-Su Valley, Sumter Regional and Broken Arrow hospitals. Meanwhile Mark penned “Power Systems to Protect Healthcare Data” in the magazine’s Pure Power supplement. Check out the stories here and here.


Sometimes good news has a life of its own -- like TLC going carbon neutral, for example. Thanks to media-savvy Mark Gelfo, PE, LEED AP, CxA, Jacksonville Division Director, the story appears on the Sustainabuild blog hosted by Ellen Leroy-Reed, LEED AP, Director of Business Development for Breaking Ground Contracting Company of Jacksonville. See the blog entry and some nice photos of the new Jacksonville office here.


The Nov. 5 Orlando Sentinel featured a comprehensive article about the sustainable design movement in Central Florida. The article, written by Sentinel staff writer Jerry Jackson, focused heavily on TLC and talked about our role as a major player in the green design industry and our offices becoming carbon neutral. The piece was the cover story of Monday’s Central Florida Business .


The wonderful full-page photo of Florida Atlantic University's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing in the November issue of Southeast Construction was taken by none other than TLC's own Sheryl Swartzle, Deerfield Beach office manager. The photo, a bird's eye view of the atrium, graces the cover of a 16-page pull-out supplement about sustainable design sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council's South Florida Chapter. Newly LEED Gold Certified Lynn College of Nursing gets lots of exposure in the supplement, as does TLC as the MEP engineer. Sheryl gets a nice photo credit, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Florida Atlantic University's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, which is the first building in South Florida to achieve USGBC LEED Gold certification, was featured in a story by the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The article noted the lighting and air conditioning sensors, bamboo floors, low-toxicity materials, reflective roof, glazed windows and other green features. "Building green cost about 1 percent to 5 percent more initially, but that's more than made up in reduced operating costs," said Tom Donaudy, FAU's vice president for planning. He said the cooling system for the Lynn building, which uses water, is about half the cost of air-cooled systems. University President Frank Brogan said that every publicly funded facility on campus will be designed to meet the building council's standards.


Jacksonville Division Director Mark Gelfo, PE, LEED-AP, CxA, was profiled in the July 20 issue of the Jacksonville Business Journal. Aptly titled "Gelfo was an early champion of green building engineering," the article details his leadership role in Northeast Florida's sustainable design movement including serving as president of the U.S. Green Building Council-North Florida Chapter. Project designer Susan Cleveland of ASD Architects speaks glowingly of Mark's dedication to green building design and his leadership abilities. The article also talks about the new LEED Silver for Commercial Interiors-certified TLC Jacksonville office and how Mark loves living in Jacksonville.


Deerfield Beach Division Director Brian Lomel, PE, LEED-AP, CxA, got a warm reception at the Boca Raton City Council workshop on May 21 when he gave a program on sustainable building design. Deputy Mayor Susan Whelchel was particularly impressed, calling it a fabulous presentation. ” We need to promote LEED-certified buildings,” she said.


The March 1 issue of the Deerfield Beach Observer shined the spotlight on the sustainable design work of TLC and the Deerfield Beach office in a two-page story, "Deerfield Beach engineering firm LEEDing the way with Florida's first Green Certified building." Division Director Brian Lomel, PE, LEED-AP, talks about the office's current workload of sustainable projects, which includes four 50,000-sf.build-to-suit office buildings, two 100,00-sf core and shell office spaces, two 60,000-sf offices in Boca Raton, botanical gardens, museums, a nature preserve, university classroom buildings, libraries, medical office buildings and corporate headquarters facilities. "Green design has been the focus of the Deerfield office for the last decade," he noted.


Check out the October 2006 issue of PM Engineer for an article by Kim Shinn, PE, LEED-AP, TLC's Director of Sustainable Design, about The LEED Application Guide for Healthcare, which is currently under development. This new guide will help explain how to earn LEED credits for new and renovated healthcare projects. It is generally based on the Green Guide for Health Care, the healthcare-specific green building rating system which Kim helped develop as part of a national task force.


Deerfield Beach Division Director Brian Lomel and several TLC projects are featured prominently in a story about sustainable design in August’s CitySmart magazine. “Green Takes the LEED®” quotes Brian extensively and mentions the Broward County South Regional Library, FAU’s Christine E. Lynn School of Nursing, the Coconut Creek Mainstreet Sustainable Master Plan, MTV, Miami Beach, office improvements, the Pompano Beach Library, Miami-Dade Children’s Courthouse, and the Broward Addiction Recovery Center in Ft. Lauderdale, all TLC projects.


Our clients and staff are always asking about trade magazines that have an environmental slant. Below are a couple that are particularly worthwhile.

  • Environmental Building News and its on-line content at www.buildinggreen.com. Annual subscriptions to this monthly periodical are available for about $40. In addition to the magazine, subscribers get access to the “GreenSuite,” an on-line specification and product listing resource.
  • Environmental Design and Construction (www.edcmag.com) and Eco-Structure (www.eco-structure.com) are free to building trades professionals – just go to their website, click on the subscription link and fill out a short questionnaire.
  • Green Building Product News sells lots of ads to manufacturers of green building products, so this is a quick and easy way to get an idea of what’s new and happening in green building products. A subscription form is available by going to www.gbproductnews.com/subs.htm.

TLC's Director of Sustainable Design Kim Shinn, PE, LEED-AP, was the featured speaker at a presentation in Pensacola on environmentally green office buildings. He told the audience of 100 or so contractors and business owners, “The real ‘green’ in green building is the color of money that can be saved by improving the indoor health of a building and its energy efficiency.” Read an account of the presentation in the Pensacola News-Journal here.


Nashville's City Paper recently interviewed TLC's Director of Sustainable Design Kim Shinn, PE, LEED-AP for an informative story about sustainable building design. 

"Sustainable design means the building's design is completely benign as far as its impact on the environment...nothing is done that would impoverish the earth," he says in the June 8 story, "New Buildings Go Green."

He goes on to describe how certain engineering, architectural and construction techniques and new products can result in more efficient lighting heating, air conditioning, and water consumption.

Kim is president of the Middle Tennessee chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.

 


Healthcare Design magazine recently had an in-depth story on the Green Guide for Health Care,  the first green building best-practices guide created expressly for the healthcare sector.  In the story, TLC's Kim Shinn, PE, LEED-AP, a member of the ASHE Task Force and a Green Guide Steering Committee member, says, "ASHE charged us with the task of creating a set of guiding principles that could become the standards for selecting quality, high-performance projects. We focused on defining strategies that impact health and respond to the unique profile of hospitals. For example, healthcare is unique among commercial building types, in that process water applications account for 70% of water use, so conservation efforts should focus on those applications."