With good friends and project co-lead, CMG Landscape Architecture, Public was delighted to receive word earlier this week that our team has advanced to the third and final stage of the ‘Design Waller Creek’ competition in Austin, Texas. We will now be competing against the three other finalist teams: Michael Van Valkenberg Associates, Inc. and Thomas Phifer & Partners; Turenscape and Lake|Flato, Architects; as well as Workshop: Ken Smith Landscape Architect, Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, and Rogers Marvel Architects.

The site is the lower 1.5 miles of Waller Creek, which meanders through downtown Austin and touches a diverse array of neighborhoods as well as social, cultural, and economic conditions. There are many fascinating challenges as well as enormous potentials associated with the site. For instance, the creek runs along a major dividing line in the City, between Central and East Austin, and it is in an area that is currently undervalued. The revitalization of Waller Creek offers an opportunity to stitch together fragmented portions of the city in a way that strengthens the adjacent neighborhoods as well as the larger City of Austin.

Public Architecture will lead the Culture & Community component of our project team’s approach. For the third stage of competition, we are very excited to spend the coming months developing a design concept with our talented team of collaborators! Our team includes the following organizations and individuals:

Biohabitats
ARUP
Urban Design Group
Hicks and Company
Scott and Lauren Ogden
Enotech Engineering
Kimley-Horn
Dan Cheetham
Community Land Use and Economics Group
ETM Associates
Capitol Market Research
Art Alliance Austin
Cheryl Haines and For-Site
Austin Community Design and Development Center
Media and Place
Pentagram

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory campus in Golden, Colorado had an ambitious goal to make their entire campus net-zero energy and to promote the use of the renewable energy resources they study. Their latest building, the 211,391 square foot Research Support Laboratory, makes great strides in this mission. It is completely net-zero, meaning it produces as much energy as it uses every year through its photovoltaic and thermal energy systems. In addition to this operational energy efficiency, the building serves as an example of what can be done
without relying on virgin construction materials. Reclaimed concrete from demolished local airport runways was used as aggregate in foundations and slabs throughout the project, and granite tiles made from manufacturing scraps were used for flooring. Most impressively, the main structural system of the building is composed entirely of salvaged steel pipes from the natural gas industry. A salvage company that stockpiles these cast-offs pipes made it possible for the design-build team to access this unusual but abundant resource. The pipes were left exposed on the building’s interior, in order to allow the story of reuse to be shared with others. A preliminary lifecycle analysis estimates that the use of salvaged steel instead of typical steel flange columns reduced CO2 emissions by 69% and total embodied energy by 68%!

Reclaimed Materials (by application): Metals, Concrete/Masonry

Key Info
Location: Golden, CO
Year completed: 2010
Architect: RNL
Client: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Contractor: Haselden Construction
Structural Engineer: KL&A Structural Engineers

Learn more
NREL Project Page

Public Architecture’s Design Access Summit brought together government, design, nonprofit and funding professionals to better leverage the design of the built environment as a tool for social gain. Leaders in health care, education, affordable housing, transportation, community engagement, environmental sustainability, and the arts worked to collectively provide design services at scale to our most underserved and challenging problems.

Attendees represented an annual $10 million in pro bono design services, $1 billion in grants funded annually, and hundreds of millions of people served annually. Over the course of the summit, they discussed the impact of the built environment on our lives and our planet, new approaches and barriers to using design as a tool for social gain, strategies for working within resource constrained environments, service delivery innovation, and impact measurement.

“Design Access was a way for Perkins + Will to intellectually reinvest in our Social Responsibility Initiative, which is based closely on The 1% program,” said Allison Williams, Design Director at Perkins + Will, “The intimacy of the summit, the breadth of attendees, and the sophistication of their approaches to common problems allowed us to connect with ideas about our current program and our aspirations for the future.”

“Design Access was one of the best events I’ve attended,” added Angela Lee, Associate Principal and Senior Vice President at HKS.

To make the conversation actionable, each attendee was asked at the culmination of the summit to commit to using design beyond the limits that they have in the past. To support their commitments, Public Architecture compiled $1 million in pro bono design services for attendees, will launch a pilot matching program for government agencies, and will share the summit’s findings through online multimedia and publication.

Design Access was held at Cavallo Point in Sausalito, California from March 14-17, 2012. This year’s event was the first in what will be an annual gathering that brings together stakeholders positioned to leverage design in traditional and expansive ways to improve communities.

For further information about Design Access, visit www.designaccess.org.

For more images from Design Access, visit Public Architecture’s Facebook Page.

Tobias Armborst, Daniel D’Oca, and Georgeen Theodore of Interboro Partners are pioneers working at the frontier of the architecture and urban design professions. Their firm embodies the expansion of architecture beyond its traditional boundaries and offers a model for designers to incorporate unfamiliar, underserved populations into their practice. They recently joined The 1% as the 1000th  firm participant.

Public. What does Interboro do?

Dan. ‘We work at a port of entry for architectural possibility where the capacity for change rests in architecture’s ability to account for what exists, to recognize the limitations of a site and recast those limitations as an opportunity for intervention.’ Someone wrote that about us once. I think it’s a nice description of what we do.

Public. What do you believe in? What are you interested in?

Tobias. We believe that there’s a big role for architects to play in working with communities that are excluded from processes that envision the future of their city.

Dan. We’re interested in the everyday life of cities and of people in cities. We don’t have any isms. We try to be very conditional and approach things as they come to us. We certainly don’t have any recipes for making places or cities better. We have principles, we have strong ideas, and we try to be good listeners as well as experts who don’t always know the answer. I think that a lot of our work is infused with that spirit of being context and situation specific.

Public. What early observations did you have as you came into the profession that led you to adopt this philosophy or nature or whatever you’d call it?

Dan. We all studied together at Harvard. There, we took classes with Margaret Crawford. She was very influential, although I think we came into the program with the same sensibilities that she had in terms of not jumping to conclusions about how horrible the everyday landscape is and seeing how it can sometimes work for people even if it is ugly or seems chaotic.

Public. So your work is infused with the public interest. What are your feelings about the movement towards “social design?”

Georgeen. We believe in everything that it is doing but we also believe that “design for social change” shouldn’t be a special category. When we started thinking about our practice we decided we would develop it with this idea at the forefront of our minds.

Public. We don’t disagree with you.

Georgeen. There’s no reason why architecture can’t provide the kinds of services that clients and communities need and also aspire to make the world better, without getting into platitudes.  People usually think of architecture with a clear disciplinary boundary and we’re trying to be more expansive about what architecture can do and what the products are; in doing so you can be more flexible in incorporating more and new goals into a project.

Public. How do you fund your projects?

Tobias. Patchwork.

Georgeen. We do everything from getting grant money to trying to opportunistically capture streams that don’t stand out in the open.

Public. You’re vanguards. What is it like?

Georgeen. We’re constantly trying to rethink: what are the services we provide and what are the products we produce? And once you’re looser about boundaries it is easier to be unconventional.

Public. For example…

Georgeen. We identify the client as opposed to the client identifying us.

Tobias. Normally you have the client coming to you saying ‘I want to do this and that,’ but most of our projects start as observations. We identify a phenomenon, we research it, and then define our position as designers and planners in relation to it; in doing so, we discover our client. Take for example our projects in Newark and Detroit.

Dan. Even in projects initiated by a client we try to create a new base. For the PS1 project, Holding Pattern, the museum was the real client. They came to us and said you need to design something for our courtyard, it has to have seating and shade and a water feature. Instead of designing for just the museum, we decided that we could do better if we went out and asked the community what they would want out of this temporary summer installation. So we took one client, the museum, and turned it into over one hundred clients. It was challenging because we had different things that people wanted but it was also an opportunity. That is when design is interesting, when you have lots of conflicting demands on you and your program. And it turned out to be this iron chef of design, where you’re given lots of different ingredients that you didn’t choose but you still have to make something delicious.

Public. What was unique about your project in Newark?

Georgeen. We worked with the City of Newark to do a neighborhood redevelopment plan. In that project there was an established venue for community participation – the design charette. In doing our research and spending time in the neighborhood, we knew that there were lots of people with different needs and aspirations who were not represented in the charettes. We set up a physical model of the neighborhood out on the street next to a bus stop at a time when we would capture people who didn’t show up to the charettes on their way to work. We let people know that we were working on the project but also in a non aggressive way talked to them about the neighborhood, subtly engaging them in the process.

Public. You put a lot of creative energy into community engagement.

Georgeen. You always have to think of new ways to engage with people to better understand the needs of the groups that do not participate in the traditional models. When we reach out to a certain group of people, we find the best place to make contact with them, keeping in mind that it is important to invent, to not take existing strategies too seriously.

We did a project on NORCs – naturally occurring retirement communities. To learn about how the elderly were using a particular NORC on the Lower East Side, we set up an informal polling station in an elevator there. Why was the elevator the best place to capture opinions? Elderly people always use the elevator because they don’t want to climb up the stairs. We had a very captive audience.

Public. You mentioned a project in Detroit. What was that?

Dan. We did a project called “Improve Your Lot!” to look at what people were doing in response to the terrible situation there. We noticed that residents of Detroit had started to accumulate property next to their house – they would have a house, then buy the lot next door, the lot next door to that one, and the lot on the other side, forming big suburban scale properties. The reason we decided to do a project was that nobody had given this behavior a name, no one had called it out as a phenomenon, no one had paid attention. It got left behind in the spectacular discourse of decline in the city. We organized workshops where we invited some of the people who had been purchasing and acquiring lots next to their homes and had them swap stories. After conducting a bunch of interviews we decided maybe this was a good thing for Detroit and the best thing we could do – even though we’re architects and we want to design and build stuff – is make this known and make people who do this more aware that what they’re doing is cool and important. We came up with the word “blotting” so the phenomenon could be operative in a discourse. Sure enough, in recent months even though this project is six years old, we’ve seen a lot of stories about blotting. It’s as if the word came out of nowhere, some of these stories don’t even mention us— but that’s okay because it’s a sign that the project succeeded.

Public. You have a great ability to look at something that exists and approach it in a new way, you leave precedent and tradition behind with great ease. How do you do this?

Dan. When we get together and talk we strengthen our convictions; we have a lot of ideas and the way we work together builds our confidence. Over the years, if you insist on something long enough it becomes true. Maybe that’s it.

Public. Any last words?

Dan. (Laughs) It’s great to be part of The 1%.

Photo courtesy Michael David Rose/MDRP.net

When the Chartwell School decided to remodel their Monterey Bay campus, a primary goal was to use the new architecture to help develop “sustainability natives” – kids for whom sustainability is second nature. In response, EHDD Architecture created a campus with a multitude of hands-on and visible learning opportunities which allow these first through eighth graders, all of whom have language-related learning challenges such as dyslexia, to understand the ideas behind sustainable design through an educational process suited to their cognitive strengths. Exposed mechanical systems and an interactive rainwater catchment system let the students experience first hand how water and air moves through the buildings and gardens, the reveals how different building elements are shaped and attached to each other, and a multitude of reused materials, particularly wood from the decommissioned military base where the school now stands as well as wood from the region’s olive oil and wine industries, create a tactile historical narrative of the site.

Reclaimed Materials (by application): Wood/Lumber, Foundation Sub Base

Additional Reuse Highlights

— Architect Scott Shell of EHDD Architecture had renovated many schools over the course of his career and was aware of the considerable waste that often results because components like windows and wood framing weren’t designed or installed in a manner that allowed for easy replacement. Aware of the priority his client placed on building for a sustainable future, Shell brought design for disassembly (DfD) expert Brad Guy onto the project team.

— EHDD and Brad Guy were awarded the U.S. EPA’s Waste Reduction Grant to conduct an in-depth analysis of material choices and DfD concepts for Chartwell School. This analysis allowed the design team to develop an effective DfD strategy to allow the school to be easily reconfigured down the road, if its needs should change.

— To achieve the DfD goal of maximizing the materials’ capacity to be reused in the future, the project team was mindful to reduce the use of unique pieces by building on modules as well as reducing the number of attachments required by using fewer, larger structural members. Where attachments were required, they used fastening systems that did not damage the materials as screws or nails would. Electrical conduit and mechanical systems were also routed around structural materials rather than through holes in the materials as is typical. The client, contractor, and architect all participated in locating materials for reuse. They also partnered with TerraMai, a supplier of reclaimed wood, for many of the woods used on the project. Working with reclamation experts gave the team access to a wide selection of materials, making it is easier to find exactly what was specified, as well as access to off-site storage for these materials until they were needed.

— Reclaimed materials included wine and olive oil casks for exterior cladding, lumber salvaged from the old barracks on site and a San Francisco company’s discarded wood flooring for interior paneling, deconstructed railroad trestles for bench tops in the courtyard, and a 12’ tall Monterey Cypress trunk as a structural column at the classroom building entry atrium, among others.

— The Chartwell School was the first educational campus to be awarded LEED-NC Platinum certification from the USGBC. The amount of reused material in the project was enough to earn both LEED credits for resource reuse (MR 3.1 and 3.2) as well as the regional materials credit (MR 5).

Key Info
Location: Seaside, CA
Year completed: 2006
Architect: EHDD Architecture
Client: Chartwell School
Contractor: Ausonio, Inc.

Learn more
Design for Reuse Primer (page 39)

GreenSource Article

Originally published in Central City Extra San Francisco, No. 120 March 2012, a publication of San Francisco Study Center.

The faux wood floor is smooth, almost silky, a far better surface for the multipurpose room in the San Francisco Study Center’s new digs than the stained beige wall-to-wall carpet it replaced.

The flooring — 879.6 square feet of oak-colored Deco Advantage Luxury Vinyl Plank — came to Study Center free, thanks to an innovative online program that lets nonprofits match their design or renovation needs with architectural firms willing to pledge at least 1% of one employee’s annual billable hours to pro bono work. That averages about 20 hours a year.

In the last year, five other central city or mid-Market nonprofit projects have used the resources of The 1% program, which joined the latest public-private push to revive the grungy area on Market Street between Fifth and 10^th in San Francisco.

The 1% idea is the brainchild of Public Architecture, a 10-year-old nonprofit at Eighth and Folsom streets. In six years, 571 nonprofits nationwide have searched for help and 1,011 architectural firms have made the pledge.

De Meza + Architecture + Interiors Inc., founded by Gregg De Meza in 2001, is one of those firms. The Study Center’s floor project was a far cry from De Meza’s other architectural and design efforts — mansions, yacht interiors, corporate cafeterias locally and in New York, Hawaii, and other countries.

De Meza architectural firm is one of hundreds nationwide in the 1% program. Firm founder Gregg De Meza helped Study Center in its relocation. Photo by Lenny Limjoco.

“Our clients are high-profile, but I’ve always wanted to give back to the community,” says De Meza. His staff suggest ways to do this, and as a result regularly participate in National River Cleanup Day — last year it was San Francisquito Creek in Palo Alto — as well as a Christmas gingerbread house decorating party for the kids at Edgewood Center for Children and Families.

The firm also donates to Muttville, a San Francisco rescue organization that places older pets in foster and adoptive homes.

Eighteen months ago, a staffer told him about The 1% program. De Meza pledged 1% and has been involved in three projects. Mostly The 1% program is self-directed, with nonprofits and architects making the matches themselves. Like many matches, not all are made in heaven. Two of the three didn’t pan out.

“One project was a Native American clinic out of state,” De Meza says. “We didn’t have a lot of experience with that kind of facility.” The other was the Project Artaud theater renovation, right across the street from De Meza at the time. “They went with a firm that had a lot of theater design experience.”

But the Study Center’s project was a perfect fit, he says. “It was quick and fairly easy. We do office space planning for clients every day. Also, it was a natural progression for us — we have all these connections with vendors who can supply materials pro bono or at cost.”

Study Center Executive Director Geoff Link heard about The 1% program last year at a San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery opening when he met Amy Ress, The 1% Program Manager. Ress was working with the Arts Commission’s ARTery Project and was actively involved in encouraging matches that would benefit mid-Market revitalization.

“Part of our work,” Ress recalls, “was to direct organizations to our program that wanted to make mid-Market their home. I stepped in when the Study Center started looking for a match.”

Link, following 1%’s online protocol, first posted the project, listing Study Center’s need for help planning the offices, and then picked three likely architectural firms.

“De Meza was one of them, and Gregg got back to us fast,” Link said. He and Jennifer Gustafson, the firm’s director of interior design, met with Link at the old office in the Grant Building to see how Study Center used its existing space. Then, at the new office, they sent out interns to take photos and measure the space. They toured the new quarters with staff of Office of Self Help (OSH) and Mental Health Clients’ Rights Association, which are part of Study Center, and took more photos and drew space plans.

The finished floor gleams in the Office of Self-Help’s multipurpose room at 944 Market St. Inset. Photo by Lenny Limjoco.

The floor in the large multipurpose room and adjoining kitchen area, used by OSH for client groups and arts sessions, needed a tougher surface for all the wear it would get. Gustafson contacted Shaw Industries in Georgia, among the biggest flooring manufacturers and a Fortune 500 company, and Welker Bros. in Milpitas, America’s largest flooring contractor.

“We got involved with this project through Gregg, who we’ve worked with for 15 years,” said Eric Borg, a senior account executive at Welker Bros. “Jennifer asked if we wanted to participate, and I was glad to do it.”

The job, he said, was expected to take one day of removal and a day to install, but the schedule took a hit when the old carpet came up. Like an archaeological dig, layer upon layer of old flooring underneath had to be removed to create a level surface for the vinyl. “In the end,” Borg said, “it took six man days, or 48 hours.”

Another mid-Market nonprofit involved with The 1% program is Hostelling International, parent company of the City Center Hostel at 685 Ellis St., just off Larkin, a seven-story, 88-room Deco building constructed in 1927.

The hostel, says Sam Hussein, hostel manager, is “a really beautiful building but we struggle to get people into the Tenderloin. We’re looking to redesign the common lobby, fine-tune the space so it’s more inviting and feature our neighborhood amenities.” Three weeks ago, Hussein posted the project, requesting planning assistance and help purchasing materials, and now is looking for a good match among the designers.

He’s optimistic. “The process is so easy and the people at 1% are so helpful. Within hours of my posting, I heard back from them.”

SAGE — Standing Against Global Exploitation — is another nonprofit that just posted its request. The 20-year-old organization sold its building at 1275 Mission St. and moved at the end of February to a leased space at 68-12th St.

“What we need help with is simply space planning at this stage — where to best put furniture and people — but we haven’t contacted any designers yet,” said SAGE Executive Director Amy Rassen. She had heard about The 1% program last year through her membership on the board of directors of the Northern California Community Loan Fund, which helps nonprofits find funding and resources, including real estate, in areas needing revitalization.

The loan fund has been an important player in plans to create a mid-Market arts district and, through that connection, began working in 2007 with the Luggage Store gallery at 1007 Market St. Leiasa Beckham, the fund’s real estate consultant, oversaw the project to make the first-floor rental space ADA-compliant, working with architects from Asian Neighborhood Design and managing project funding from two city agencies, Grants for the Arts and the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Hospitality House moved its Community Arts Program into the space in 2010 while its 146 Leavenworth St. location is being renovated.

Darryl Smith, Luggage Store co-director and founder, says the next stage of its work with 1% will be to make the galleries, which opened in 1991, more accessible to the public. That might include adding an elevator and interior stairway and making the rooftop usable.

“We’re working with Jensen Architects now and it’s been very easy,” Smith said. “They toured our building with Leiasa, asked how they could best serve us and assessed what we needed most.” Jensen, a high-end firm with offices in mid-Market, designed the SFMOMA rooftop garden and California College of the Arts’ new graduate center and studios. For the Luggage Store, it’s creating a full set of CAD (computer-aided design) drawings of the entire building, an expensive but essential first step to any renovation.

Public Architecture promotes its matching program on the premise that architectural excellence should be available to all and that sophisticated design can be applied to real problems. Its 1% program is a first-of-its-kind architecture-related public service, following in the footsteps of other professions like law and medicine whose members donate their time to civic and social efforts. The 1%’s web presence was established in 2005 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The program has received pledges of more than 300,000 pro bono hours worth $38 million annually. Services include analyzing potential new locations, enhancing the aesthetics of an office, creating drawings for capital campaigns, evaluating ADA compliance, building out new offices or renovating old ones, and much more.

So far, 308 matches have been made, 73 of them complete, 164 in progress, and another 70 or so just beginning the matching process. Also, more than 570 architectural firms have used the Website to report projects they found in their community on their own, outside The 1% program. Nonprofit projects are in every state, and the pro bono services come from one-man shops up to huge firms: Gensler alone has pledged 43,000 hours annually.

In January, the American Institute of Architects signed a partnership agreement with Public Architecture to promote the program to its 78,000 members in 300 chapters nationwide, “a huge step forward for us,” Ress says.

Public Architecture is participating in this summer’s Public Interest Design Program at the University of Texas at Austin.

The program connects students interested in how design can be used as a tool for social gain with leading practitioners in “public design” and equips them with the tools needed to create “beautiful, sustainable, and community-enhancing spaces.” For the duration of the 8-week program, students will develop skills to leverage the practical and ethical complications of public service as a means to heighten the quality of their work by seeking innovative design solutions that positively impact larger social problems.

Public Architecture will host this summer’s new externship program where ten selected students will travel to San Francisco to create a critical professional report that documents the community impact of public interest design projects in the Bay Area. The externship will place students in groups of two within San Francisco Bay Area-based architectural firms to study built projects. Students will conduct research and work with professionals and local community members in order to create detailed reports that analyze and quantify the social, environmental, and economic impacts of built projects in the area. Throughout the externship students will use Public Architecture’s office as a meeting place and will be supported by Public staff.

The application deadline has been extended to March 26. We encourage advanced architecture, planning, design, and other urban studies students and graduates from universities around the world to submit.

For more information visit http://soa.utexas.edu/csd/PID/.

To apply, click here. 

Past projects led by our Summer Associates have varied widely, from conducting interviews about pro bono design with some of the country’s top architects to generating sustainability guidelines for participants in The 1% program and developing a program for material reuse within The 1%. The majority of the work will involve research, writing, and help with our outreach efforts. Once on staff, the Summer Associates play an integral role in moving forward many of our organization’s initiatives and are encouraged to participate as a full member of the staff.

Sample Responsibilities

–Provide outreach to participating and potential firms and nonprofits in The 1% program
–Research and develop case studies on pro bono design projects and material reuse
–Support design projects
–Author pieces for The Public Dialogue
–Conduct research on the built environment’s impact on health, education, housing, and community engagement
–Assist in development of educational and support materials for The 1% program
–Research foundations, corporations, government entities, and other potential funders and partners
–Provide additional research and administrative support for the overall organization when needed

Required Experience & Skills

–Candidates must currently be enrolled in as undergraduate or graduate at a college or university
–Enrollment in a Masters program in business or design is preferred, but not required
–Outstanding organizational skills with attention to detail
–Ability to think analytically
–Effective communication skills
–A vested interest in and commitment to Public Architecture’s mission and activities
–Strong writing and editing skills
–Computer literacy in MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint; Adobe Creative Suite and Autocad a plus
–3D rendering and/or HTML code experience a plus

Duration
May through September 2012. Date are negotiable.

Location
Summer Associates will work in Public Architecture’s office, located in the heart of San Francisco’s South of Market district.

Compensation
Public Architecture requires that all Summer Associates secure funding or academic credit from their academic institution or similar entity. Many schools offer public service grants or stipends that allow students to work in a community-oriented or nonprofit environment. Previous summer associates with Public Architecture have received support from the Harvard Graduate School of Design Community Service Fellowship, Smith College Praxis Program, Vanderbilt University Ingram Fellowship Program, UC Berkeley Judith Stronach Fellowship, and University of Virginia Externship Program. Information on such grants is generally available through departmental, financial, or career service offices. If needed, Public Architecture can provide a letter of support to aid in the grant application process, but we are not in a position to provide matching funds.

Application Process
All application materials must be received no later than 6pm on Monday, April 2, 2012. Required materials include a cover letter, resume, and a writing sample. Materials should be addressed to Samantha Given-Dennis, Administrative Manager, Public Architecture. All materials should be submitted by email to samantha@publicarchitecture.org with “Summer Associate Application” as the subject of your email. A single PDF is preferred. Please limit file size to 5MB. A shortlist of candidates will be interviewed by phone, unless local. Final determination is expected in late April.

Image via Locus Architecture Blog: http://www.redsquarempls.com/blog

Nowhaus 01, is a single family residential housing prototype in Minneapolis which was designed and built on spec by architect/builder LOCUS Architecture. The partners at LOCUS had a habit of collecting and saving leftover building elements from their projects and they became excited by the idea of building a sustainable, progressively designed home using reclaimed materials. When a lull in work came in 2003, they saw it as an opportunity to keep their crew busy with a project that would allow them to explore this interest. They began by purchasing a 1950′s ranch home and deconstructed it down to the foundation. Then, using the deconstructed materials (including structural lumber, sheathing, and fixtures) as well as materials from their own salvage collection and other sources, LOCUS built a new single-family home with an entirely new, contemporary aesthetic. One of the house’s most distinctive features—its exterior rainscreen siding— was created using scraps of used billboard behind translucent plastic siding. The result is an animated facade that changes throughout the day as the moving sun reveals the graphic images of the billboard scraps. The house also includes many other sustainable features such as passive solar heating and an impressively energy efficient seven layer exterior wall assembly. NowHaus01 demonstrates the potential of reclaimed materials to contribute an attractive, contemporary aesthetic to sustainable urban housing.

Reclaimed Materials (by application): Wood/Lumber, Electrical

Key Info
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Year completed: 2004
Architect: LOCUS Architecture
Client: speculative project by LOCUS Architecture
Contractor: LOCUS Architecture

Learn more
Residential Architect Article

The 1% program reached two major milestones last week. They represent significant steps in our mission to institutionalize pro bono practice in the architecture and design professions.

Public Architecture is delighted to announce The 1%’s 1000th firm participant, Brooklyn-based Interboro Partners. We’ve been following the rise of this socially-engaging and innovative firm in recent years and couldn’t be more pleased to bestow this honor on the firm. Tobias Armborst, Daniel D’Oca, and Georgeen Theodore lead a forward-thinking office, doing architecture, urban design, and planning. They are most recently known for “Holding Pattern,” the 2011 winning design for MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program. Interboro’s team created a temporary playful summer environment by first asking groups in the community if there was anything they needed that Interboro could incorporate into the PS1 design. After determining the local community’s needs, the designers built the PS1 program using the requested elements. The project was de-installed four months ago and the components are now being donated back to the community.

“We’re thrilled to be part of The 1% program. Like most people here, we believe that architecture and planning should serve the public, and not just those who can afford the services that architects and planners provide” said Interboro Partners upon learning of The 1%’s 1000th firm designation. “Good, inclusive architecture and planning–especially in the form of public space–is an important ingredient in a democracy. With this pledge, we continue our mission of serving neglected and underserved populations. It’s heartening to know that there are 999 others out there like us!”

Interboro Partners joins a network of architecture and design firms (now 1006) contributing over 300,000 hours of pro bono design services to communities in need, valued at nearly $40 million annually.

In its humble beginnings around 2002, about a dozen firms took a leap of faith and made the first pledges to pro bono service through The 1%, among them Pugh + Scarpa [now Brooks + Scarpa], Tuck Hinton Architects, and Oglesby Greene. The 1% program grew out of Public Architecture’s realization that there were no formal mechanisms for supporting or even simply recognizing work in the public interest. While many designers are quite generous with their time, the profession as a whole had never encouraged pro bono service as a fundamental aspect of professional standing—or as an integral component of a healthy business model.

Last Tuesday, it was no small accomplishment for Public Architecture to announce a new partnership with the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Together, we will advance the pro bono design movement and encourage AIA members to join The 1% program. In 2007, the AIA generously donated a one-time, single-year grant of $115,000 that went towards developing The 1%’s online matching service. This time, the partnership is different and marks a noteworthy positive change. It moves our relationship from charitable to a true partnership, with each side invested to provide architects with the resources and support to encourage socially-responsible design.

Increasingly, we’re finding that 1% of a firm’s annual hours does not fully account for many firms’ pro bono contributions. The 1% requests that firms pledge a minimum of 20 hours per year per person, a number based on a 40-hour work week. Early results from The 1% Firm Survey in 2010, whose full results are due to be released soon, reveals that  77% of firms surveyed are contributing more than 1%, and 14% of that group report more than 10% of their annual hours were pro bono service contributions.  Many people will ask how that level of contribution can be a sustainable business model. Public Architecture is interested in that answer too, and will continue to build resources that share the experience of your peers in the fields of architecture and design.