Monthly Archives: April 2022

Sustainability is one of Lombard Conrad Architect’s (LCA) five tenants. How they achieve sustainability comes in a few different forms that fall into three categories. Efficiency, Resiliency, and the Health and Safety of occupants. Each project begins with a discussion between LCA and the client to discover the client’s sustainability goals. While only a few can achieve LEED certification, others can still find ways to improve their building’s sustainability. LCA starts by looking at how the building will operate as a unit rather than individual parts. Part of that includes bringing in experts who know the goals and requirements of the project.

 “It is important to get as many opinions as possible. There will always be more issues than one person, or our design team can consider. When you have a project team where everyone cares, is invested, and is excited about bringing their opportunities to the table, you can check those boxes exponentially faster.”- Ryker Belnap, Architect

Efficiency

LCA often utilizeds the U of I’s Integrated Design Lab (IDL). LCA will send an initial floor plan concept to IDL, who will then run a year-long location and weather simulations on the building. That gives IDL a baseline number of how the building will perform. Then, LCA can try rotating the structure, shifting the windows to the south side, adding shade, etc. to improve that baseline efficiency number. The goal is to balance the initial investment cost with long-term payback.

Resiliency

With an efficient design in place, the next step is sourcing materials for a resilient building. LCA looks for high-performance and innovative materials that are sourced locally and will stretch the lifespan of the building. After considering the mantra, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” LCA chose to “Reduce and Reuse” within their new office by moving into an existing building. Reusing a building is perhaps the most sustainable choice they could have made. Then they reduced the amount of material used to define and isolate rooms by creating a much more minimalistic and flexible environment including movable walls and easily reconfigurable furniture systems.

Health & Safety

The final part of sustainability is providing for human comfort. This encompasses everything from finding the perfect temperature for productivity, creating green spaces within an office, sourcing non-toxic materials, and providing natural views. Employers want efficient and resilient buildings. They also want healthy employees, and LCA is helping employers create both create sustainable buildings and improve the health of employees.

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TreanorHL has many offices scattered throughout the United States, but their dedication to sustainable practices unites them all. Whether in their own buildings, or their client’s projects, TreanorHL introduces sustainability through WELL building practices focusing on community, mind, and comfort.

Sustainability Through Community

What is the best way to help your team invest in the community? Give them specific days to go out and serve. Every Valentine’s Day and Juneteenth, TreanorHL gives every employee the day to serve a local charity of their choice. TreanorHL has discovered the vital lesson that where your time and money go, your heart follows. So, by getting to know their community, they can design better, more accessible, and sustainable buildings to serve it.

Sustainability Through Mind

When it comes to sustainability, “mind” can represent a couple of different things. First, it means the ability to think through problems during design. A recent example of this was the Jasper County Courthouse in Joplin, MO, where TreanorHL conducted a life cycle cost analysis on a geothermal heating and cooling system to discover if the system made economic and long-term sense in the building. The analysis considered all the costs and surmised that while it would cost more, the system would pay for itself in 10-12 years, have minimal maintenance costs, and have a longer life span.

Mind also represents the importance of providing spaces that consider the mental health of occupants to reduce stress, encourage productivity, and contribute socially. Some examples of this include providing restorative spaces easily accessible throughout a building that lend well to social activity, offering great views of nature, and optimizing daylighting. These spaces help keep people connected to nature and one another.

Sustainability Through Comfort

The final piece of sustainability has to do with comfort, specifically how spaces contribute to the users’ overall happiness and mental health. TreanorHL is currently working on these principles by designing for thermal comfort with optimized passive solar heating with a double glass façade. They are also creating open work environments with controlled acoustics, wood timber structures to create warmer, more visually comfortable spaces, and exposing the majority of spaces to daylight to assist the body’s circadian rhythm.

By following WELL practices, TreanorHL designs longer-lasting buildings where occupants can thrive.

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Positively Impacting Humans & Animals

How do you turn a city dump into a place that positively impacts the lives of millions of people and animals? You turn it into the Idaho Department of Fish & Game headquarters. In 1960, the first Idaho Fish & Game building was built to help preserve, protect, perpetuate, and manage wildlife resources in Idaho. Today a brand-new building sets in its predecessor’s place, continuing that mission.

The Idaho Fish & Game Mission

Since 2008 there has been conversation around rebuilding the outdated Fish & Game Building. While it had served its purpose for many years, the Department quickly outgrew the building and needed more space. It wasn’t until 2019 that the Foundation issued tax-exempt bonds for the building so construction could begin in September of 2020. The project was not only completed early, but it also came in under budget. Overseeing the successful project was Hilarie Engle, the Executive Director of the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Foundation that partners with the department to protect, preserve, perpetuate and manage Idaho’s wildlife resources. Along with overseeing the foundation’s activities, Hilarie acts as the project manager for constructing new buildings. Thanks to her efforts, the new building houses 170 department staff members once to the four winds. “This building is huge for Fish & Game. It brings all the bureaus back together again (some of which were separated for 25 years), and the collaboration from meeting one-on-one is so different than having to do a zoom call or phone call. Seeing everybody come together is one of the coolest parts of this project.”

The New Building

Not only is the building bringing everyone together, it is also beautiful. Between the colors, animal mounts, and murals, it is a highly welcoming and energizing environment. “I see employees walk into the building, and they are excited about it. They tell me how they love walking into the building knowing they get to come work here.” Some spaces the employees especially enjoy are the breakrooms. Coworkers will join each other in the break rooms whereas they used to eat alone at their desks. Others utilize the nearby greenbelt or visit the MK nature center when they need a break and some fresh air before returning to store their items in the bike room or take a shower. Another space making a difference is the large auditorium that the commission uses to formally hold its meetings.

Working With OEC

With so many different bureaus under one roof, each floor looks a little different. Some are workstation heavy while others enjoy private offices with great views over Municipal Park. Helping with the furniture installation, move, and animal mounts were the OEC team. With three floors to fill, it was a big project. “OEC’s design and install team really shined on this project. They were phenomenal. They worked their tails off and were wonderful to work with. Wendy (OEC designer) showed me things I never would have thought about, and the install team met every single deadline. It was unbelievable everything that they moved, and they were honest about their timelines and really pleasant to work with.”

With everyone in and loving the new building, the department is excited to continue working toward its mission of preserving species so that everyone can enjoy them.

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The other day my wife had a hard day at work. When she got home, she announced, “We aren’t making dinner tonight, we are going out”. We quickly rounded up the kids and headed over to Costa Vida, our favorite “go to” restaurant around the corner. While in line we caught up on the day with the kids. The kids told stories of what is happening in school, and my wife and I shared what was happening in our lives at work. We laughed, joked, listened to one another, it was a very normal family dinner conversation for us. During the family catch up, an older gentleman behind us in line leaned in and asked if he could share something. After a slight hesitation I said sure, and to go ahead. He told us he lived in Eastern Idaho and was a District Court Magistrate Judge. He told us what was happening in our family waiting in line—laughing, sharing, listening—was a joy to hear. He said he oftentimes hears family and marriage-related cases that involve all kinds of unimaginable vitriol, violence, and unkindness. He admonished our teens how lucky they were to have parents who liked each other and were kind and friendly. We enjoyed conversing with him in line and when we got to the register he insisted on buying our family dinner. As I have reflected on this experience during the past week a few things have come to my mind I was hoping to share. 1) Be nice to each other—especially your family. 2) Have fun and laugh, it’s contagious and can uplift others. 3) Be sure to take time to get out of the house and the office and connect with others—it’s an important part of the human experience we are all sharing.

Scott Galloway

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