Building design can have a signficant impact on your health. According to the landmark National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS), conducted between 1992 and 1994, people spend an average of 87 percent of their lives in enclosed buildings, where pollutants like tobacco smoke, volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), asbestos, pesticides and carbon monoxide can prolilferate and,
(This post originally ran in 2016.) Solar shading is a system of controlling the effects of the sun’s heat and light for your home or office. It allows you to make the most of natural light, heat, and shade for a more comfortable, eco-friendly environment. Benefits A well-designed solar shading system helps you regulate the
This post previously ran in 2017. Earthquakes are a fact of life in the Bay Area. The same geologic features that create our dramatic mountains-meet-ocean vistas mean we have to live with a little bit – or sometimes a lot – of shaking. California’s building codes are continually updated based on emerging research and lessons
Julia Morgan, the first woman to be licensed as an architect in California, was a pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement and a master of many styles, bringing them into much of her work and creating an elegant but down-to-earth architecture that was distinctly Calilfornia’s. Early Life & Education Julia Morgan Julia
Louise Blanchard Bethune has had a major impact on my life as a woman in architecture. Considered the first female architect in America, Blanchard Bethune demonstrated that it was not only possible for a woman to design buildings, she showed the world that a woman could design great, useful buildings as well as any man.
Adaptive reuse has helped New York reclaim and transform one of its iconic buildings. Trans World Airlines (TWA) may be no more, but part of the terminal that superstar architect Eero Saarinen designed for the company remains a travel hub, now as a hotel. When the TWA Flight Center at New York’s John F. Kennedy
The Wonder Bread Factory building in Washington, D.C., where the eponymous sliced white bread and the parent company's sweet Hostess cake treats were made, is emblematic of how adaptive reuse can be an important part of revitalizing a neighborhood. The four-story building, with its brick-and-steel façade, is part of a group of buildings in northwest
The Seaholm District in Austin, Texas, is an adaptive reuse project centered around the former Seaholm Power Plant, a series of late Art Deco-style buildings completed in 1955 that have lain dormant since 1996. The redevelopment, which started in 2013 and is ongoing, has taken the property from abandoned industrial site to a vibrant example
Adaptive reuse is the ultimate urban (or suburban) recycling project. Adapted buildings are terrific for their communities from a social, economic and environmental standpoint, and they offer business owners unique spaces to conduct and showcase their work. Over the past weeks, I’ve written several posts about adaptive reuse of old buildings because I think it’s
(This post originally ran in June 2016.) Solar shading is a system of controlling the effects of the sun’s heat and light for your home or office. It allows you to make the most of natural light, heat, and shade for a more comfortable, eco-friendly environment. Benefits A well-designed solar shading system helps you regulate
