Environmental, Economic & Community Design -- A Priority At GBBN Architects

GBBN Architects is dedicated to sustainable design and has been a regional leader in the green building movement since 1995. The Cincinnati-based, full-service architectural firm conducts Integrated Design Workshops as collaborative planning events dedicated to exploring how to optimize the environmental, economic, and community design goals for a given project.

(PRWEB) July 28, 2004 -- In a continuing effort to educate externally and internally, GBBN Architects recently conducted an Integrated Design Workshop for the Boone County Cooperative Extension Service. This was an event that marked an important shift in the way design is practiced at the Cincinnati-based, full-service architectural firm. GBBN's Integrated Design Workshop is a collaborative planning event dedicated to exploring how to optimize the environmental, economic, and community design goals for a given project. Participants build relationships with each other, learn from each other, and collaborate with each other to strategize the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the project. The results are a project team that is motivated by a common set of goals, and a roadmap to achieving a project that exemplifies community pride, energy and resource conservation, and fiscal responsibility.

For the Boone County project, GBBN Architects worked with Messer Construction Company to evaluate cost-effective environmental opportunities for the site design for the Extension Service's new office building, a site that also includes a new branch for the Boone County Public Library, a farmer's market, and the roadways, parking, and green-space that serve the buildings and market. Working within the existing topography, and by proposing alternative paving materials such as pervious cancrete and grass-paved overflow parking, a conceptual design was developed that preserves existing trees, minimizes stormwater runoff, and features a green mall” that connects the buildings to the farmers market along a path that integrates educational learning gardens”, a key program of the agriculturally-oriented Extension Service. These features will be developed as the design progresses in order to assure the best possible environmental outcome for the development.

GBBN Architects is dedicated to sustainable design and has been a regional leader in the green building movement since 1995, with our design for the renovation of the Hamilton County Alms & Doepke building. Three GBBNers, Greg Hutzel, Alan Warner and David Akester, have chaired the AIA Cincinnati Committee On The Environment (COTE), and are currently active in the US Green Building Council's Cincinnati Regional Chapter. Additionally, three of our staff Akester, Ted Christian, and Greg Hutzel are LEED (TM) 2.0 Accredited Professionals.

GBBN Architects is currently managing the LEED (TM) documentation and certification process for several of our clients' projects, ranging in size from 3,000 to over 200,000 square feet. Internally, GBBN researches and trains all our staff on the latest environmentally-friendly building strategies, while continuously pursuing innovative ways to reduce our own office's impact on the environment.

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