Results from GreenWORKS Design Competition

InterDesign submitted an entry to a green affordable housing design competition and received an Honorable Mention. I had only a small part in the competition, designing one house and providing feedback. Anna Waggoner and Brian Burtch led the design team with their energy and enthusiasm for sustainable design. The rest of the team was Karen Hartlep, Kionna Jones, and Lisa Goertemiller. Below are excerpts from an Albuquerque Journal article:

Top Winners Named in City Contest

Designs from WAMO Studio of Santa Fe and Opticos Design, Inc. of Berkeley, Calif., were the top winners Friday in a contest for an affordable housing project the city "hopes" will be built... Their designs were chosen by an eight-person jury from 24 submissions from design groups throughout the U.S., Japan and India.

The genesis of the contest was an observation by City Councilor Chris Calvert more than a year ago that the city owns a quarter-acre lot running between Alto and Lower Alto streets that would be perfect for an infill affordable-housing project. "And it should be as green and sustainable as possible, too," Calvert told city housing and community development department director Kathy McCormick.

Tight competition
The contest that was created was a joint venture between the City of Santa Fe, Enterprise Green Communities, the Garfield Foundation and the Frederick P. Rose Architectural Fellowship. All designs submitted had to meet the design criteria of Enterprise Green Communities, the newly-established draft Green Building Code of the city, and the city's affordability requirements and historic design regulations.

One of the jurors, architect and architecture professor Michael Pyatok, FAIA, of San Francisco, said the quality of the designs submitted was unusually high, making the judges' decision much more difficult. Usually, he said, jurors can reject at least a quarter of entries in a contest of this sort right away, because they don't meet the specifications. That didn't happen here, Pyatok said.

He attributed the quality of the entries to the stringency of the green design criteria, the fact that the contest was for affordable housing, and the fact that it was a project in Santa Fe.

"When you ask architects to take seriously all the green issues, they have to be much more focused and technical, but it also forces them to think outside the box," Pyatok said. "So what you get is more exploratory, but more rigorous and grounded."

Architects and architectural teams around the world also are becoming more serious about designing affordable housing that is sustainable, and that was a major criterion of this contest, he added.

"And thirdly, it's in Santa Fe, this gorgeous place, one of the gems in the lexicon of cities," Pyatok gushed. "People obviously wanted to design something for Santa Fe." He said he "can't wait" for his 30-member staff to see the winning designs.

Honorable mentions
Besides the two grand prize winners and the People's Choice award, Calvert gave certificates of honorable mention to five other firms: InterDesign, Indianapolis, Ind.; RTKL Associates, Dallas; Measured Works Architecture, New York, N.Y.; Autotrophe, Inc., Santa Fe; and Macy Architecture, San Francisco, Calif.

Click here for the full article.

I will add the boards we submitted soon.

Thoughts on MLK Day

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I offer this quote:

"Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: - 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Speech at Civil Rights March on Washington, August 28, 1963

While it is a good dream, worthy of meditation and contemplation, and a basis of our nation, how do we ever create a nation where “all men are created equal”? We all come out of different backgrounds, are born into different families, cultures, and opportunities. Perhaps a better statement would be “all men are given the chance to climb above that which they were created in,” and conversely, “this life is yours to spoil.” God created us man and woman, then by race, having the ability to make our own decisions. While we may not all begin our life equally, nothing but ourselves should get in the way of us becoming whatever we want to be. If you’re being held back, or prejudiced, change. As I’m sure we’ll hear tomorrow, our nation is in a time of change, so make it personal. Just as MLK worked to remove the prejudice that served as a barrier to many black people, others like Madame CJ Walker were able to prevail in spite of being a black woman in a time when both her gender and race were held down. Don’t hold yourself back any longer.

2009 Rough Start, but Goals Abound

Happy New Year! My year can only go up from here, the market is still in the tank, my uncle’s mother Judy Martin passed away, a civil engineer I was working with died, we’ve already spent about $700 on unavoidable auto maintenance, my bicycle was stolen…[and my cat from when I was in high school did Sunday, 1/11]... At least I’m gainfully employed.

I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions, but I am recommitting myself to a few goals, such as populating this blog. Here is an item from Seth Godin’s blog concerning goals:

“Having goals is a pain in the neck.

If you don't have a goal (a corporate goal, a market share goal, a personal career goal, an athletic goal...) then you can just do your best. You can take what comes. You can reprioritize on a regular basis. If you don't have a goal, you never have to worry about missing it. If you don't have a goal you don't need nearly as many excuses, either.

Not having a goal lets you make a ruckus, or have more fun, or spend time doing what matters right now, which is, after all, the moment in which you are living.

The thing about goals is that living without them is a lot more fun, in the short run.

It seems to me, though, that the people who get things done, who lead, who grow and who make an impact... those people have goals.”

Goals accomplished in 2008: brought one sales lead into the office, became a Certified Construction Contract Administrator (CCCA), increased my leadership role in the office through the development of InterAdvance, and I achieved a life goal in becoming an architecture firm owner.

Goals for 2009: I plan to spend more time with my wife and boys, increase my office leadership efforts through InterAdvance and in my new role as an owner, and increase my community involvement through the Chamber of Commerce and related activities. Be sure you have goals, otherwise you’ll look back on the year, or lifetime and realize you just had fun with nothing to prove for it.