Given the recent events regarding immigration, ELS has made a donation to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to support their efforts in providing critical services for refugees coming to the US and assist with the current crisis caused by Friday’s executive order.

Link:

Emergency Appeal: Help refugees in the U.S. now

The post In Support of Refugees and Immigration appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

Last year, I helped form a new integrated design committee in Albany, California, to advise the school district and the school board on new school construction made possible by recent bond measures. Bonds B and E passed with majorities and provided $95 million for four new Albany schools. I volunteered for this group because my two kids attended Albany public schools, and it felt like a place where I could make a difference using my expertise as an architect focused on sustainability.

Building public schools is very complex, and design does not always keep up with changes in pedagogy. I also wanted to advocate for making our new local schools not only sustainable, but also net zero ready (when a building can produce as much energy as the building consumes) to reduce our district’s energy costs and impact on the environment.

Albany is a small town in a large metropolitan setting. The public school district has an excellent reputation for making education the priority. At the same time, Albany is very walkable, with a charming main street called Solano Avenue, well known for the annual Solano Avenue Stroll in September each year and the bi-annual Dinner with Albany event. In our town, at eight in the morning, the sidewalks are full of kids and families walking to school. The busy morning commute captures the essence of Albany and our commitment to a sustainable lifestyle.

The city of Albany already had a climate action plan, but an alignment between city and school district goals still needed to happen. That was one of the integrated design committee’s first projects. The school district responded positively and committed to pursuing the program developed by the nonprofit organization Collaborative for High Performance Schools for our new schools.

The Collaborative for High Performance Schools provides a very comprehensive overall structure that guides school design, but specifics were still undefined. The school district had established criteria for flexible, comfortable, and collaborative learning environments.

How do we align those goals with the goals of sustainable design on the first couple of bond projects? Where might there be tradeoffs and fortunate synergies? The committee advised on current technologies as well as trends in flexible learning space, energy efficiency, daylighting, ventilation, and outdoor learning spaces.

In the Bay Area, we are lucky because we have a moderate climate. Siting a new building carefully can allow for outdoor learning, natural ventilation, and good daylighting. Taking advantage of thermal mass to moderate temperature swings is also key. All of these can add up to significant savings on energy. There have also been studies that show that daylighting leads to improved learning. Of course, these sustainable goals can sometimes be hard to achieve on tight infill sites.

But what of achieving net-zero-ready schools? We are always analyzing short term versus long-term costs. What we can do now is design buildings so they can become net zero when the budget allows and when new technologies are more widely tested, more available, and less costly. You can plan for mechanical systems that don’t rely on natural gas. You can design a building envelope that uses less energy and purchase equipment that reduces plug loads. You can design a roof to accept photovoltaic panels in the future.

Most importantly, the point is to not close off options, but to design school campuses so they can be easily updated in the future. The essence of sustainable design is flexible design that can adapt to changing approaches to education. Current trends move away from teacher-centric learning to a more collaborative, student-centered learning. We want the classrooms we are building today to be flexible enough to adapt to these changes and to future innovations that we cannot anticipate.

Our goal is to build schools that will reach net zero and last 100 years. It takes community support to get there.

For Additional Info: www.chps.net

The post Making Net Zero Real in Schools Is a Community Project appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

Clarence Mamuyac talks with Peter Sollogub of Cambridge Seven Associates

I started working with Peter Sollogub of Cambridge Seven Associates on the new Santa Clara International Swim Center and International Swimming Hall of Fame. Although he is trained as an architect, a lot of his work focuses on immersive learning exhibits. I sat down with him recently to ask about his experience with STEAM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Arts/Mathematics).

(Photo above of DeBartolo York Education Center, San Francisco 49ers Museum at Levis Stadium courtesy of Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc.)

Clarence Mamuyac: What have you focused on for the last several years?

Peter Sollogub: The “how.” That’s what I focus on. There are many phrases for it. Immersive design is one. Our firm, Cambridge Seven Associates, became well known for the design of the New England Aquarium almost 50 years ago. Back then we didn’t call this approach STEAM. But we have been collaborating with experts in all those areas to make better learning spaces of all sizes since then. These are enhanced learning environments that encourage creativity and critical thinking. They explore how things happen.

International Swim Center and International Swimming Hall of Fame – STEAM Center, Santa Clara, CA (Architects: ELS Architecture and Urban Design | Exhibit Designers: Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc.)

Mamuyac: What’s changed in education?

Sollogub: What’s not changed? Everybody talks about technology, and it has a role in the design of learning spaces. But one of the biggest changes, and this is pretty broad, is that students are no longer passive and solitary. Teachers don’t just present facts and students memorize them. People work together and uncover answers. The process of discovery creates a lifelong passion for learning.

Mamuyac: What have been some recent projects where this has happened?

Sollogub: Each learning environment can be organized around a different access point. It can be as broad as the weather and the oceans or as narrow as a sport like football or swimming. In our work for the NFL’s New England Patriots, one project that took place was that kids got together to develop ways to create helmets that can better protect players. That involves science, math, materials, and aesthetics.

In Santa Clara, we have been working on the 49ers’ Denise DeBartolo York Education Center. You can use the strategies of football to explore all the STEAM disciplines.

We’ve been working with your firm on the International Swimming Hall of Fame at the Santa Clara International Swim Center. From a learning point of view, the visitors will be exposed to an array of STEAM education stations centered around swimming, speed, energy, sustainability, fluid mechanics, and wellness, to name a few.

Mamuyac: What about a project without athletics as a basis?

Sollogub: Children’s museums are great for generating new ideas. And they translate across borders. At the Gyeonggi Children’s Museum in South Korea, the “Healthy Children” exhibit gallery features a basketball challenge, a soccer competition, a rock-climbing wall, a seesaw that holds a dozen children, and other full-body movement experiences. There is a 65-foot-long “river” with areas where children can build and float their own boats, move water uphill with an Archimedes screw, crawl under the water, create dams, and direct the flow.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, in our renovation of the science and technology museum Discovery Place, we created maker space labs where the kids have all kinds of opportunities to work with living animals.

Museum for Discovery and Science EcoDiscovery Center Exhibits, Fort Lauderdale, Fl (Exhibit Designers: Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc. | Photo courtesy of Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc.)

Mamuyac: These spaces must be expensive. Who pays for them?

Sollogub: The basic ideas surrounding STEAM are philosophies of learning. You can start with one modest lab. But the projects I’ve mentioned end up raising money from companies or organizations in the local community. And interestingly, it has not proven that difficult. It’s not like branding an arena. It’s about the mission of the potential sponsor correlating with the educational mission of the institution.

For example, Raytheon is very interested in lifelong learning in mathematics. So they contributed generously to the STEAM component at the Hall at Patriot Place, the New England Patriots’ museum.

Sony and the Chevron are both involved with the STEAM component at the 49ers Museum because these components are immensely popular—the 49ers’/Chevron/Sony STEAM experience greets 100,000+ visitors a year, and having their brand associated with an important and new education resource is good business.

Marine Technology and Life Sciences Seawater Research Complex Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science – University of Miami, Miami, Fl (Exhibit Designers: Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc. | Photo courtesy of Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc.)

More importantly, the sponsors are clear about the purpose, i.e., it’s not about selling something; it’s about discovery.

Mamuyac: How would you summarize your work in a sentence?

Sollogub: Wow. Well, I think we help shape spaces where all kinds of people can learn about how things happen.

Mamuyac: What is one way to measure whether you have succeeded?

Sollogub: The simplest measure is whether the space is messy or not. If it’s messy, we have probably done our job.

DeBartolo York Education Center San Francisco 49ers Museum at Levis Stadium, Santa Clara, California (Exhibit Designers: Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc. | Photo courtesy of Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc.)

The post STEAM – It’s All About the “How” appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

There are all kinds of makerspaces in the Bay Area. Some focus on technology, others on craft. As a designer, I can’t afford having my own full-time studio or buying a lot of expensive tools to explore all my interests. But for a small sum, I can try out different makerspaces depending on what I need at a certain time.

When I was finishing my thesis project, I was vinyl cutting and silk screening my project. I needed an open space to print and clean my screens. I found the TechShop, a community-focused studio space located in the city. Each floor specializes in different methods. TechShop provides access to a laser cutter, a wood shop, a sewing area, and more.

Nearer to the office, I started using the art studio at UC Berkeley to work on ceramic pieces. This space is open to the public, not just students. I am also looking into Studio One Art Center in Oakland for a space closer to home where I can make art more frequently.

Makerspaces are unique because you can find assistance there, collaborate, or just inhabit a do-it-yourself atmosphere. I think of makerspaces as fortresses of art where the drawbridge is always open.

My sister is a science teacher, and she tells me what she wants in her classrooms and lab rooms, and it sounds a lot like what I want: a place that is flexible. It has enough infrastructure so you can make and build. It is a place where science and art meet.

UC Berkeley has institutionalized these kinds of spaces into the engineering program in a new building, Jacobs Hall. It’s not a fringe space that’s only for creative types. It’s worth checking out.

It turns out that I’ve been able to bring this maker sensibility into the office here at ELS, too. When we were interviewing for a retail center in Southern California, I suggested that, in our effort to rebrand the project, we distribute takeaway collateral that focuses on the brand message. I created pocket squares with the logo silkscreened on black silk. Duplicating the logo multiple times created a hieroglyphic pattern, which could also be applied to building surfaces to give the building texture and identity. But the design could be scaled down to the size of a shopping bag or even a pocket square. It was a great gift after the presentation.
Our office currently has its own makerspace. We have a laser cutter and a 3D printer, and also an open space to cut and build models. Building models helps us and the client visualize a conceptual model through its tactile pieces.

I have a degree in graphic design as well as architecture, so I help bridge the gap between architecture and graphic design through visual communication, using a human-centered approach. I look at how patterns connect and how the environmental graphics can tie landscaping, architecture, and signage together. A storefront doesn’t just show retail products inside a structure. The store brand must also be integrated into the architecture, creating a brand experience and a memorable identity.

With architecture, you can experiment some, but you are dealing with somebody else’s money, so there are practical limits. Also, buildings take several years to finish. When I work on projects in a makerspace, I can experiment as much as I want and perhaps even finish something within a few weeks. Creative types need to tinker and see something to fruition. For example, the color of a glaze when it’s first applied looks completely different once fired in a kiln. Experimentation and collaboration play a major role in creation.

Makerspaces in schools are great for youth, because they are for the next generation of makers. These spaces becomes their safe space in a world where they often don’t have much control. There aren’t so many limits, and they can learn on their own. They can achieve something they never anticipated. Makerspaces are realms of experimentation that have therapeutic value. Personally, I don’t feel judged when I go to a makerspace. You don’t have to worry about what you’re wearing. You are going there to create. That’s what comes first.

A makerspace is my happy place.

The post The Next Generation of Makerspaces appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

In 2015, I was assigned to handle construction administration for the Legends Aquatic Center at my alma mater, U.C. Berkeley. The project initially began in 2012 and involved an innovative funding model and an innovative project delivery method. The innovations were successful because they allowed for strong working relationships among the client, the university, the design team, and the contractor.

Constrained state budgets make it difficult for public universities to finance major new building projects. A new(ish) method for overcoming this challenge is the donor development delivery model. In this case, four alumni of U.C. Berkeley saw how much the university needed a dedicated training venue so that swim teams wouldn’t have to share Spieker Aquatics Complex with recreational swimmers. In addition, because Spieker lacked a diving tower, student athletes had to drive 45 minutes to Palo Alto to borrow Stanford’s in order to practice.

These alumni—Ned Spieker, Rick Cronk, Don Fisher, and Warren Hellman—founded a nonprofit organization called Cal Aquatics Legends. They approached the university with a proposal to lease a site on Bancroft Avenue, raise all the money for the project, serve as developer, and donate the improved site back to the university.

They tapped Peter Schnugg—a U.C. Berkeley alumnus, a donor, and a former water polo player—to serve as the owners’ representative. Peter is also a former partner at Spieker Properties, so he really understands project development. With a seasoned developer at the helm, Cal Aquatics Legends chose the construction manager design-assist project delivery method instead of the traditional design-bid-build process that public institutions typically follow.

This saved a lot of time. When public universities are the client, they have to go through a lengthy request for qualifications process, followed by interviews with architecture firms, a selection process, and contract negotiations. Then more months go by while the architect designs the building and completes construction documents so contractors can submit bids—more interviewing, more selecting, more contract negotiations. With the construction manager design-assist model, developers can simply call on the professionals they want to work with. That alone shaves six to eight months off the project’s timeline.

Even more helpful, the contractor starts collaborating with the architect early in the design process. In this case, Cal Aquatics Legends hired ELS to design the facility and Vance Brown Builders to be the contractor. Starting with the schematic design phase, Vance Brown began providing design assistance for the structural systems for the pool and dive tower and for the mechanical systems. The contractor researched design options, handled cost consulting, and checked for constructability. Getting their input early on saved a lot of time during construction, greatly minimizing change orders and requests for information.

With construction manager design-assist project delivery, the owners’ representative, architect, and builder work as a unit. It was easy for me and Adam Rupp, Vance Brown’s project manager, to collaborate with Peter.

Even though Cal Aquatics Legends was paying for the project and overseeing it, the facility ultimately would belong to U.C. Berkeley, of course, so it was our job to make sure that the university received a swim facility that met their needs completely. The construction manager for the university was Jack Scanlin. With many years of construction management experience, he was a great resource to bounce ideas off of. We’d all sit with the contractor representatives during construction meetings and work out different solutions and options.

The construction manager design-assist project delivery gave us unusual flexibility. Seventy percent into design—six months into construction—some donors came forward with additional funding specifically to upgrade the locker rooms. That was fabulous, but we had to race against the clock to get it done. We worked closely with Peter and Alicia Rowell, the development director for Cal Athletics, to identify how to apply the new funds. Vance Brown helped us figure out how the upgrades would affect the schedule and the pricing. It was possible to add radiant heating to the floors, but the contractors were about to pour the slabs, so we had to coordinate carefully. Vance Brown held off on the concrete pouring and told us how many days the donor had to give the thumbs-up to our proposed upgrades. In the meantime, the contractors worked on other aspects of the project.

Before the additional funding came on board, we’d had to remove skylights and canopies and the wood ceiling to stay on budget. The new funding meant we were able to put those elements back in. I jumped into heavy-duty coordination mode to get the documents to the site so Vance Brown could proceed. If we’d been relying on a traditional design-bid-build project delivery method, we would have paid a significant premium for the changes. As it was, we got it built without going beyond the budget or the deadline.

The Legends Aquatic Center opened last fall. The process met with rave reviews from Cal Athletics, and the U.C. Board of Regents is now using the donor development model for other projects within the U.C. system.

The post Building Innovative Buildings, Building Innovative Delivery Systems appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

I’ve worked on a number of community recreation and aquatic facilities over the years, including the Burgess Aquatics Center in Menlo Park, for which I was project designer and project manager, and an aquatic center for the city of Elk Grove, for which my role is project manager. The two roles inform each other, I’ve found.

With every project, I’m always looking for an overarching idea that can be carried through—the facility’s basic DNA, if you will. If it’s pure enough and deep enough, it can inform the smallest of details. When I manage projects, I’m looking for ways to organize the chaos through spreadsheets and other methods for presenting information clearly so the whole team understands what we need to do next.

Each time I communicate with someone, I think, what’s most important, and how can I get that across to this particular person or team? It’s the same when I’m presenting a design to city officials or members of the general public, with the goal of building consensus around that design. If you just show a floor plan to a group of laypeople, it may not mean a whole lot to them. Nowadays we rely heavily on renderings or physical models. Once people can see the design in an easily recognizable form, you can show them the floor plan and they can grasp it more easily.

When we were developing the design for the Elk Grove aquatic facility, the municipality initially wanted the entry sequence to match that of the city’s existing aquatic complex, where people go through a room to buy tickets before they reach the pool. In our facilities, we design ticket windows outside the gates where users buy their tickets, so the extra room isn’t necessary.

To help our clients envision how this would work, our principal in charge, Clarence Mamuyac, decided we should build a small-scale physical model of the facility. We also created 200 little clear plastic people and lined them up, showing where people queued up and how the ticket windows would facilitate quick entry without compromising security. Once we showed them the model, our clients got it right away.

There’s always going to be some chaos with any project, no matter what you do, so my approach is to stay calm and focused. Listening to everyone is key. For Elk Grove, our day-to-day client contact was the city architect, but the assistant city manager also had valuable input, as did the independent special district agency that was the potential operator for the facility. You also have the maintenance staff and groundskeepers, as well as potential users—not just families who will be swimming recreationally, but also coaches for the various swim teams who will be practicing there.

Then you’re coordinating with mechanical, electrical, structural, and civil engineers, not to mention aquatic consultants who have their own subconsultants. The architect has to stay on top of everything. For example, in one project, the aquatic consultant had allowed for a 40-foot length of almost continuous pipe penetrations in the pit retaining wall of the pool water heating and filtration room, which turned out to pose a challenge given the structural engineer’s design to support the wall at the pit. On top of that, because of the high water table, we had to work extensively with the civil engineer to create enough of a slope that the pool pit could drain properly. The plumbing engineer was also deeply involved, of course, to link up the pipes for all this. The project manager is constantly making sure everyone’s on the same page.

I bring another perspective to these projects, too—I started swimming year round when I was 12 and swam competitively in high school and college. After graduating, I joined a masters swimming teams in my 20s. Although I no longer compete, I still swim for 30 minutes three times a week, and so does my daughter.

So I look at aquatic facilities from the perspective of someone who has been swimming seriously for more than 40 years. It may seem scandalous for an architect to say this, but as a swimmer, what’s most important to me in an aquatic facility is not the way the building looks. What I care about most is if the water is the right temperature, the locker rooms don’t smell musty, and there’s good water pressure in the showers. I love pools with access to natural light and views to trees and grass.

That doesn’t mean that good building design isn’t important. For the East Oakland Sports Center, striking architecture was incredibly important, to give this disadvantaged area a beacon of pride and a place that would bring the community together not just for recreation but also for meetings, classes, and other events. For Elk Grove, a suburban community of tract homes with few parks, the aquatic facility will be part of a new, pedestrian-friendly civic center with a new park that can host festivals, farmers’ markets, picnics, and other events.

Aquatic complexes are just that—complex. They’re the result of a collaboration that unfolds over a long period of time, from design development to construction administration, involving hundreds of people each with their own concerns and responsibilities. For us, design doesn’t stop at the design phase—it’s an ongoing, artful dance, blending a community’s aspirations, the budgetary constraints of the municipality, and our consultants’ technical expertise, all the way up to opening day. Whether I’m the project designer or the project manager, I’m always thinking about what it will be like for the swimmers and the other users.

Because at the end of the day, it’s all about people coming in and enjoying the water, whether it’s for a short swim once every few months or part of a daily regimen.

And don’t be surprised if you see me doing the backstroke in the lane next to you.

The post Synchronized Swimming: Project Management for Community Aquatic Facilities appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

Dana Grant, who swims as Dana Vollmer, recently joined the ELS team as an aquatics and sports programming specialist. She is a five-time Olympic Gold Medalist and current member of the USA Swimming National Team. For years, she has also been interested in design. She brings together these two passions at ELS as we expand our firm’s expertise in programming aquatic, wellness and sports facilities. We recently spoke to her about her evolving career.

Q: How much does an aquatic facility impact the performance of a swimmer?

A: When trying to stay calm during a competition athletes often say to themselves “It’s the same pool, same distance, same blocks. Just Race!” Regardless of our mantras, the facility does impact your performance. We try to combat these effects through routines in practice for foreseeable changes at the competition venue. It might have to do with a range of details: the temperature of the water, the light on the water, the shadows on the wall, the proximity to an audience, the length you have to walk between heats and the space you have available for stretching when you’re warming up.

Q: When did you first get interested in design?

A: When I was a little girl, I wanted to be either an interior designer or a cardiothoracic surgeon. I would rearrange my room every week. I loved drawing floor plans and designing fantasy houses for my friends. When I became a swimmer, I grew more interested in the body and how it worked in the water emphasizing my interest in health and medicine.

When I graduated from UC Berkeley, however, I didn’t want to go to medical school. I looked at design schools and considered a new career after swimming. At first I thought it would be quite different from swimming. I met Clarence Mamuyac, a principal at ELS, at an event at the new pool his firm designed at Cal. We talked about different kinds of pools and athletic facilities and how they could be designed better for the people who use them.

Q: Can you tell me some spaces that inspire you?

A: The London Aquatics Centre that Zaha Hadid designed for the London Olympics inspired me. You walked in and felt like you made it. Everything about the space reinforced the excitement.

Often I walk into a facility and look at the different aspects and wonder, why did the architect or designer make that decision? Why that color behind the art? Why are the displays so poorly lit? That might sound negative, but in competitive swimming, I found that I was always more motivated by getting beat. If I came in second place, or further down, I was inspired to work harder. I guess it’s like that to some degree with design. How could I contribute to making this space better?

Dana Grant takes off at the London Olympics

Q: Tell us about some of your design classes so far.

A: My professors have all been architects. One of my projects I designed a waterfall café on top of a hotel. I wanted to use the meditative sound of water in the design. I loved the drawing and drafting classes the most. Some of my recent classes have been on healthcare design and color theory. It’s fascinating to see how these two things work together. We are always talking about lighting and its impact on a space.

Q: Tell us about lighting in aquatic centers.

A: There are some spaces that you are in awe of as soon as you enter. This was true in the London Aquatics Centre. Most of the time, we are not used to large crowds watching us. There, you could hardly make out the spectators at the top. With indoor or even subterranean pools, they are just dungeons. I don’t like competing in those.

Q: What else about competitive pools for elite athletes?

A: I think a building that reinforces the excitement helps your performance. You walk in and feel like you’ve made it to the big show.

Q: What about pools for laps or even recreational and family swim?

A: Now that I swim with my two-year-old, I am just as aware of the environment as I was before. But you become aware of different aspects. If you are not moving vigorously, you want a warmer pool.

Dana with Arlen at his first swim lesson

I want my son to have a positive experience with water. One big reason to get kids in the water early is that they will be more comfortable with it, and that means they will be safer. I like the zero-depth entry. It’s important that he can get his feet on the ground and that he can recover himself. A place to get his face splashed and a place to climb are good too. Kids should have more than a playground in the water. They should have some interactive activities. I am right there balancing and floating in two feet of water to show him my comfort level.

Q: Are there new experiences to be had, even for an Olympian?

A: Oh yes. I swam for elite performance my entire life. You are always reaching for that next level. Throughout my career I have realized that there are different ways to think about this work. I enjoy playing around with the physics of the body moving through water. This knowledge is still relatively young. Olympians have been running competitively for thousands of years, but swimming didn’t become a competitive sport until the late 19th century. The science of how people move through water keeps improving. How people move in the 100-meter butterfly in 10 years may be very different.

Q: Can you give me another example?

A: How I use the buoyancy of my lungs to propel me, versus relying just on brute strength. It’s small aspects such as this that helped me to becoming the fastest woman in history in the 100m butterfly at the London Olympics without necessarily being the strongest muscularly.

Q: Where else do you train?

A: While at Cal, we practiced in a wave pool. I have done a lot of training in the ocean. All of those different environments can help you.

Q: What about those dungeons, the ugly pools underground without windows?

A: They may not be ideal, but some can be great training environments. As long as there is water, you can learn something about how the body moves, and figure out ways to get faster. One of the trainers who I have worked with thinks that we won’t be training in rectangular pools in the future.

Q: We have to talk more about that in another post. What was it like to swim in the pool in Rio?

A: The fans were closer. I liked the fan interaction. My parents were five rows away from me. I could see their facial expressions when I got out of the pool.

Q: What does a fan not know about elite competition facilities?

A: There is a lot of walking. Walking from the pool to the media, to warm down, to drug testing, to get a beverage for hydration. We actually have scheduled walk-throughs before the competition so we know where to go.

Q: What are a few improvements that many pools could benefit from?

A: Athletes want more space to warm up, to stretch. Often all of the athletes can’t fit into the pool to warm up at the same time. It’s something I love about Stanford. Three pools!

Q: Do you have a favorite new pool?

A: In good weather, I enjoy the pool that your friend Mark Schatz designed in Livermore. My son loves it!

Q: What attracted you to swimming?

A: Where else do you get to float? I loved that while you are working hard, you also have sensation all over. It can be meditative. I love the sound deprivation. I still put my ears under the water in a bathtub just like you do when you are little. Generally, swimmers of all kinds have an innate love of the water. When I was 12, I loved watching how my shadow moved on the bottom of the pool while I imagined being a mermaid. There has to be an element of fun. To be honest, it was a combination of fun and love that made my competitive swimming career so long.

Q: Can you tell us about another great moment in swimming?

A: It happens very young. It’s when you learn how to have the water hold you. You’ve learned how to take care of yourself in water. Watching kids when they take their water wings off and know the water will hold them is a beautiful moment. And then they want to do it forever.

The post Where Else Do You Get to Float? A Conversation with Olympian, Dana Grant appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

ELS’er and 5-Time Olympic Gold Medalist, Dana Grant, will compete in the Arena Pro Swim Series at 26 weeks pregnant.

Go Dana!!

Links:

Olympic Gold Medalist and UC Berkeley Grad Dana Vollmer to Race while Pregnant [ABC 7 News]

Vollmer swimming six months pregnant [ESPN]

The post Dana Grant Competing in Arena Pro Swim Series appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

ELS has been certified as a 2017 great workplace by the independent analysts at Great Place to Work. We are honored to earn this credential based on extensive ratings provided by our employees in anonymous surveys.

“According to our study, 89 percent of ELS Architecture and Urban Design employees say it is a great workplace,” says Sarah Lewis-Kulin, Vice President of Great Place to Work Certification & List Production.

ELS employees completed 45 surveys, resulting in a 90 percent confidence level.

In the United States, Great Place to Work produces the annual Fortune “100 Best Companies to Work For” list and a series of Great Place to Work Best Workplaces lists.

Link:

Great Place to Work Summary of ELS Ratings

The post ELS Certified by Great Place to Work! appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

ELS is excited to announce that Maureen Boyer, AIA, has joined ELS as associate principal and director of retail.

Maureen has more than 30 years of professional experience and has worked internationally on a variety of commercial retail projects. For the past 18 years, she has been a firm-wide leader at Gensler, where she cofounded the retail center practice area and focused on retail-anchored mixed-use environments and retail projects. She spent the past four years codirecting the firm’s São Paulo office in Brazil. Her clients have included Westfield, Wilson Meany Sullivan, Carrefour, Apple, Forever 21, and others.

The San Francisco Business Times named Maureen one of the Northern California Real Estate Women of Influence in 2013. She is a registered architect in California and a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), and San Francisco Architectural Heritage. She has served on ULI’s Commercial & Retail Development Council and is on the planning committee for the ICSC Centerbuild Conference. She received her bachelor of arts in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley.

The post Maureen Boyer Joins ELS as Associate Principal/Director of Retail appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

Due to the growing popularity and convenience of online shopping, traditional retail is undergoing radical transformation with unprecedented opportunities to make the shopping experience and mixed-use centers more relevant and vibrant than ever before. The leaders of ELS’s retail studio got together to talk about the trends they’re seeing.

Geno Yun, AIA, LEED AP, Principal in Charge of the Retail, Mixed-Use and Urban Design studio
Maureen Boyer, AIA, Director of Retail
David Masenten, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Director of Mixed-Use
Ryan Call, AIA, Director of Urban Design

Q: How is the retail landscape changing?

Geno: This is an exciting time for retail and retail center design and planning. Today’s consumers demand more from their shopping experience; while the pure act of buying stuff is effective and convenient online, successful stores and shopping centers today will offer experiences that you can’t get online: socialization, dining, entertainment, mixed use programming and people watching. The human need to interact will always be there and the most successful retail centers will offer a hospitality-grade experience.

Maureen: Remember that movie You’ve Got Mail with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, about the behemoth bookseller that swallowed up the tiny independent bookstore? Fast forward to today and most of those giant megastores which were so dominant 10-15 years ago don’t even exist anymore. In today’s world of Amazon, people don’t need to shop at a big discount bookstore that looks and feels like a cold, impersonal warehouse.

What’s happened, and I think it’s incredibly exciting, is that the independent booksellers have been completely rejuvenated—they’ve become the alternative to online book buying. It’s analogous to what you see happening in retail, where the larger department stores are breaking themselves down into a series of smaller, increasingly focused and branded boutiques. In addition, many stores host popups, have bars, restaurants and coffee shops.  The experience is utterly worth leaving home for. The malls are relying on this strategy, too. So the customer experience is completely changing.

Q: A lot of developers are interested in creating a sense of authenticity in their retail and mixed-use centers. But what makes authenticity work?

David: The Ferry Building in San Francisco is wildly successful at drawing locals as well as visitors.  The place has real authenticity: materiality, the history of the building and the right mix of local and national retailers that tell the story of what is delicious in San Francisco today. When it was first built it had a transit-focused life.  The attraction was preserving its historic fabric to become a true mixed-use, transit oriented office and retail destination.

San Francisco Ferry Building

Geno: A trend for the future is that a developer’s portfolio will have properties that are uniquely different from each other. It used to be that developers wanted to offer the same tenants around the country. Today’s consumers are more savvy and demanding and are not looking for that. They’re looking for something more original—an offering that they can call their own.

Ryan: I’ve experienced many places in Europe and the United States where the architecture is insignificant, but I still feel great. I’m always asking myself, “Why does this work?” A lot of times it’s a design vernacular that’s rooted in local building methods. Authenticity isn’t driven as much by the architecture as by the way that the specific place connects the whole community, the way the community uses that place and, most importantly, shares that place. It’s that sharing that creates this larger identity.

Q: How will e-commerce continue to impact the design of retail centers?

Geno: Retail centers have to adapt and provide something that online shopping can’t, face to face social interaction and experiences. About half of our projects now involve replacing empty department stores with lifestyle-focused uses. We’re taking them down completely and creating open-air plazas with social bowling venues, alternative food offerings, bocce courts and entertainment districts. We’re running real streets through these buildings and augmenting them with residential and office uses. They’re now being anchored by real experiences.

Hillsdale Shopping Center North Block

David: I see a real opportunity for urban retail centers to host events that highlight the unique attributes of a location. Well-designed open space should be designed to accommodate these events, but open space by itself is not enough. Landlords have to spend time thoughtfully programming, making sure the events activate the space and are unique and relevant to the people in the target market. Possibilities include popups, food trucks, or outdoor movie nights during the summer…

Events at Healdsburg SHED

Maureen: …fashion shows, maker fairs, farmers markets… We can also help to position the anchors to create a good flow that will encourage cross-shopping when visitors actually come for a specific event. Other crucial factors for event spaces are flexibility of use and access to power and water.

Q: What about the role of food in retail centers?

Geno: The percentage of food tenants to the overall GLA has increased quite a bit over the years. When Santa Monica Place started out, about 5 percent of its total square footage was devoted to food tenants. During the recent renovation that number jumped to about 30 percent. There is even an incubator kitchen, which offers cooking classes and group functions.

Maureen: I’m really interested in working with developers to create a shared kitchen or facilitate a popup kitchen that emerging young restaurateurs can book on a temporary basis. In New Orleans there’s a cool little place, St. Roch Market, that has a shared commercial kitchen. Each tenant has their own locked rack in the kitchen, assigned shelves in the cooler and they book time for the stove. The market management provides common cutlery, plates and clean up.  it’s really popular. In Oakland there was a another restaurant concept called Guest Chef, which featured a new chef every month. It kept the flow of customers fresh and interesting.

Santa Barbara Public Market

Q: What is the younger generation seeking in retail environments?

Ryan: They’re spending more time with their friends, more time outside the home. So there is an opportunity to bring a broader mix of uses closer together so that they can get together with each other easily.

Geno: Retail developers are seeing an increase in demand amongst younger shoppers for non-traditional retail environments. Consumer-driven, curated experiences will win out over those that are more formula-driven.  The tenant mixes in these environments have more unique local and regional tenant offerings, but still require a mix with national brands. Successful community-driven retail places like these will sell “culture” – not only “fashion”.

Q: What opportunities are there for suburban shopping centers sitting in a sea of parking?

Ryan: We look at that sea of parking and think, “land bank.” We say, “Wow, look at all that space that we could build on.”

Geno: When department stores shutter, shopping center owners also have a real opportunity, because they can recapture the parking lot associated with the anchor. You can replace them with structured parking. That unlocks the site for redevelopment.

When autonomous vehicles come into play, the way people get to and from retail environments is going to change. When we design new parking structures, they need to be designed with flat floors and higher floor to floor heights so that, in the future, you can redevelop them into an office or a residential building. At some point, no one will need parking structures.

Ryan: Millennials who are leaving cities to start raising their children in the suburbs still want to take with them aspects of the fun and interesting life they led in the cities. Seniors, with more time for leisure but less desire to drive long distances, want entertainment and culture close to home.  Responding to these market forces creates one of the most interesting landscapes for our industry.

Q: Are you seeing a lot of wholesale replacement of failing shopping centers?

Ryan: For a while, developers and cities were demolishing failing malls. But I think it’s more interesting to keep the mall, reinvent it, find ways to make the connections to the outer urban fabric seamless, and leverage all those forces coming into the mall. Then, all of a sudden, you’ve got a crossroads for the culture and for the community.

Q: What lessons are you drawing from retail environments overseas?

Maureen: Most recently, I lived and worked in Brazil. In São Paulo, the cool, fun, interesting places to shop share the same spirit with interesting places to shop all over the world. No matter the country, we all respond to the new, the beautiful the well-designed.

I’ve also spent a lot of time in Singapore. Shopping is such a huge part of Singapore’s culture. Orchard Road, for example, is the Champs-Élysées of Asia. It’s a shopping street with a vast number of shopping centers strung together. From an urban standpoint, the government of Singapore has done a great job of creating the connective tissue along that street, which didn’t really exist when those centers were built. Creating that pedestrian experience has been hugely important to the ongoing success of those shopping centers.

Q: What kinds of uses are proving most compatible with retail in mixed-use developments?

David: Developers today have a high level of confidence that residential uses are going to sell or lease. And they are taking notice of  how retail can provide amenities for the housing they build. High quality amenities attract high quality tenant demand, the same is true with office development—if they want the best tenants, and the tenants want the best employees, they’re going to be looking at the larger community in a holistic way. They’ll be asking, “What are my employees’ commutes going to be like?” and “What are their options for fun?” That’s generating demand for mixed-use, integrated communities that are walkable and convenient.

Q: How can municipalities work with developers to better support mixed-use development?

David: Developers need to be provided with specific guidelines from cities to ensure that each commercial envelope is attractive to future tenants. This includes providing adequate height and depth for retail on the ground floor, protecting sightlines and providing consideration for loading. When those retail spaces are not deep enough, tall enough or well located, they will generate less revenue or even worse, may remain vacant.

Geno: There’s so much opportunity now to shape the future of retail. Unlike what you hear in the news, we think now is a key turning point in retail development, one that right-sizes the industry and offers a tremendous variety of experiences.

The post Building the Future of Retail appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

Maureen Boyer, AIA, recently joined ELS as associate principal and director of retail, bringing with her more than 30 years of experience on the design of commercial retail projects in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. We caught up with her recently to get her take on the rapidly changing face of retail design.

Q: Tell us a little about your philosophy of retail design in urban environments.

Maureen: I feel strongly that the commercial vitality of a city is the most important factor necessary in order for that city to thrive. Our task as architects is to imagine and then to provide the physical framework that will not just support but will enhance the commercial uses that ensure this vitality. We do this by creating meaningful and complex spaces where people can interact.

Consumers instinctively seek choices. Can I play, can I sit, can I stroll, can I chat, can I take a selfie…? (Downtown Summerlin, Las Vegas, Nevada)

What can one do in a space like this other than simply pass through? (Bayfair Mall, San Leandro, California, before renovation)

In the past, many commercial retail environments were designed—intentionally—to be very formulaic, clear, and easily understood. If you look at the history of ELS’ practice and most of the projects, you will see that the firm’s work has always been about creating very layered design solutions. This complexity is by design, allowing for flexibility and for incremental change over time. The process of renewal results in private and public places, including outdoor spaces buildings and the spaces between buildings that endure with a quality of agelessness.

An active outdoor space gives a visitor the choice to amble or to pause. (Bayfair Mall, San Leandro, California, ELS proposed)

The word is evolving quickly. Any of us can shop more conveniently and more easily from home now. Look no further than the recent Amazon purchase of Whole Foods for the latest example of how our collective need for convenience and efficiency has permanently changed the consumer landscape.

Of course the purchase of Whole Foods is more complicated and strategic than simply their mission to satisfy consumer demand for convenience and efficiency. But for us as U.S. consumers our ability to make the choice of whether to shop in-store or online will be undeniably improved. Amazon recognizes the need for both online as well as brick and mortar stores which is why they are opening physical bookstores and have now bid for Whole Foods. In buying Whole Foods, Amazon would get upscale buyers with over 450 physical stores which can double as distribution centers in prime retail locations.

But in spite of all this convenience and efficiency, the reason we don’t all do 100% of our shopping online, and the reason that we never will, has to do with the experience we seek when we get up off our couches. We all go to the marketplace to shop in order to be in a social setting. We go to interact with the people that sell us things, to learn about and to experience the things that we buy, anything from a loaf of bread to a pair of Vans, to a toaster.

What this means is that designers need to consider every moment of the customer experience and provide a response: from arriving via multiple transit options, to walking through the front door to finding what we came for, to pausing for something that we didn’t come for and then deciding on a cup of coffee or a place to buy lunch… The stakes are much, much higher, because while no one has to leave their couch, many of us still want to and thankfully are able to do so but only for an experience that satisfies us.

Malls are changing, too. I remember not so long ago having a recurring conversation about amenities in the mall common area. Even a simple bench—these were seen as places where people were going to be sitting and not shopping. These things were actually debated. It seems hard to even remember that time now. That attitude has been completely overturned.

This is a space that functions sometimes as a street, sometimes as a café, and sometimes as a sidewalk marketplace. (Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto, California)

And this is why I feel very sure that we are living in a time where the opportunities for great design to impact and to enhance the experience in the public realm are greater than ever before, and great design is getting more respect than ever. Complexity is a fact of our daily lives. As architects of the retail experience, we have always paid attention to the communities where we work. We look at factors such as connectivity, locale, climate, orientation, and of course demographics. The difference is that now we are better able to work with clients, who also understand the imperative of developing a program that stems from a deep understanding of their particular audience.

Less and less often do you see retailers trying to be all things to all people. Instead, retailers are using analytics to understand who their core customers are—their tribe, if you will. Advertising back in the day was about talking at consumers: “This is what you need—this kind of beverage or this kind of dress.” But now retailers want to understand what their customers what, and they have a better ability to do that now because they can track the decisions that customers make and fine-tune what they offer and how they present it.

There is much more emphasis on listening and understanding. And consumers want help navigating through the bewildering array of choices that modern life offers. It’s a much better time to be an empowered consumer.

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The post Respect for the Consumer in Retail Environments: An Interview with Maureen Boyer appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

As I head into my 6th four-year cycle leading up to an Olympic year my perspective and life experiences have changed dramatically with every cycle. A decent part of this shift is just life, growing up, realizing what’s important, and what works for me personally. There were drastic perspective changes that came with each cycle: 2004 I made my first Olympics and then entered college, 2008 I missed making the Olympic team and graduated from college, 2012 I had the best possible outcome in my sport and then decided to continue swimming, and in 2016 I competed while having a newborn child to raise. The 2020 Olympic cycle will also have major changes including having my second child, juggling the demands of two children, and beginning a design career that I’ve always dreamed of having!

I’ve learned over the course of my swimming career that change is good! It keeps things fresh, keeps shifting how I view my body and movement, and keeps me feeling like I’m moving forward in life. I’ve also learned that feeling nervous is a good thing! It’s the emotion that means we are excited and have high expectations of ourselves. With that, I’ve learned strategies over the years to keep myself focused to help me achieve high athletic performance.

Balance is key! It’s the balance between athletic ambitions, family, and future life pursuits. Luckily for me my athletic ambitions and life pursuits have now merged and I couldn’t be more excited. I had dreamed that after my swimming career I would pursue a career in architecture: in what area, I hadn’t decided. I now am collaborating with some of the best architects designing world-class swimming facilities as an aquatics and sports programming specialist for ELS. I have been engaged with two recent wins and one pursuit; the Redwood City Veterans Memorial/Silicon Valley YMCA, the Cañada College Center for Wellness, Aquatics and Kinesiology and the College of Marin’s proposed Miwok Center for Wellness, Recreation, Aquatics and Kinesiology, respectively.
This combination is two-fold. On one hand, my 25 years of swimming experience in hundreds of pools around the world gives unique perspective in programming and designing those facilities. On the other hand, a new focus in swim facility design gives new excitement to my travels and competition. Now when I am on the pool deck my view has shifted. There are many aspects of a competition and a facility that enables the most elite performance:

Veterans Memorial Center and YMCA of Silicon Valley
Redwood City, California

Cañada College Kinesiology, Wellness, and Aquatics Center
Redwood City, California

1. Parking
2. Spectator and athlete seating
3. Locker room and access design
4. Space for coaches and officials
5. Air quality and temperature control
6. Warm-up/competition pool layout
7. Nearby accommodations and dining

These are a few of the many elements that get planned in to the design of an amazing swim facility. Now, as I prepare myself to represent the United States on the Olympic stage for the 4th time, I will travel to the world’s swim facilities with new eyes.

Dana Grant, Associate AIA
5x Olympic Gold Medalist
Aquatics and Sports Programming Specialist

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The post Training for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games + Pursuing Design appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

ELS is excited to be listed among the Top 300 Architecture Firms, published in the August 2017 issue of Architectural Record! Firms are ranked by revenue for architectural services performed in 2016. We are honored to be part of the list for a fourth consecutive year, and would like to thank our clients, staff and colleagues for their support!

Link: Top 300 Architecture Firms

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An interview with John MacLeod, Founder/CEO of New Media Learning and Managing Director at Marinovation Learning Center Makerspace-Media Studio at South Novato Library (amongst many other fascinating things!)

(Photo above courtesy of CEC Make Media)

John MacLeod is a creative and inspiring leader in the movement to introduce young people to emerging technologies through hands-on participation. I have had the pleasure of collaborating with John on an innovative new library / multi-media learning center in Novato for the past couple of years, and am excited about the directions he sees for helping to enable today’s young people to play an active role in our technological future. I met with John beneath the Ferris wheel at the Marin County Fair to discuss his background, and where he sees things going in the next few years.

John grew up in Massachusetts and was a real hippie and child of the sixties, attending Woodstock and embarking on an architectural education at Merimac College. Prior to completing the program, he left school to work on a farm in Vermont, and from there began designing and building solar-powered homes. He moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and founded a company called Lightworks that made solar stoves and collectors and built himself a passive solar home. Eventually, he became a lobbyist for the solar tax credit, which was implemented by the Carter administration, but later collapsed with the oil crisis.

Photo courtesy of Andri Koolme

In the mid eighties, John moved out west to Mill Valley. The world of microcomputing was in its infancy, and a group of Marin entrepreneurs and programmers were working to start a new company called Autodesk. They thought that, with his knowledge of drafting (which he really didn’t have), John could be a great asset in helping them to develop their first computer aided drafting program. However, his talents fell more in the area of sales, and he began working with them in that area in 1986, eventually becoming their director of international sales. After five years in this position, the company went public, and John left to start his nonprofit called New Media Learning, with the goal of making technology available to kids.

His early efforts included establishing the McMagic program at Davidson Middle School in San Rafael with George Lucas, which has since been running for more than 25 years, and setting up a digital academy at Drake High School where he is still teaching. He also started an after-school youth center in downtown San Rafael with support from a wide range of major computer makers and burgeoning software companies. Through the center, the students started a new online magazine called FastForward, published by and for kids, creating a platform for discussions of technology, entertainment, sports, and business.

Around two years ago, I was working with Marin County Librarian Sara Jones and her staff to develop the design for a new temporary home for the South Novato Library at Hamilton Field, on a site which had been transferred from the Army to the Novato School District. At the time, the library was housed in one of the renovated hangers at the decommissioned military base, but the lease was about to expire, so we needed to create a new home.

At the same time, John learned that they were going to be losing the lease on their downtown San Rafael center. John and Sara had a fortuitous meeting, and the decision was made to move the center into a greatly expanded facility at the site of the new library in an inspired joint project between the Marin County Free Library, Marin Office of Education, and Novato Unified School District. In a precedent-setting collaboration, all three agencies have actively participated in the planning, operational, and financial aspects of the new joint project, and I was lucky enough to be involved as the design architect. Marshall Lee Architects, who had a long history of projects with the school district, served as architect-of-record.

Photo courtesy of Kevin Krejci

Working together, we were able to bring John’s and Sara’s vision for the new learning center together. The new facility includes one building for the library, a media lab with video production and recording studios, and a makerspace. The makerspace may be the largest within any library in the Bay Area, with flexible work areas for woodworking, circuit board creation, 3D printing, laser cutting, and a wide range of other hands-on activities for participants of all ages. The final building at the site is currently being developed as a classroom of the future and we are going to be working to have it outfitted by the end of this year as the first wireless virtual learning space of its type in the U.S. Vive, which is the current world leader in VR headset technology, has already set up a similar classroom in China.

Photo courtesy of the San Jose Public Library

This brings me to the core topic of my talk with John. Mark Zuckerberg has said that virtual reality “is the next computing platform” of the 21st century. John’s goal is to help make immersive learning accessible to people through libraries, and he is working with the State Library and Califa to bring VR headsets to more than 200 libraries throughout the state by the end of this year. And, the first site is at our very own South Novato Library, which has been up and running now for over a year. The two companies participating in this program are Oculus and Vive, the world leaders in VR headset technology. Ten high school students are currently participating in a VR production class, designing their own 3D immersive games in a summer program at South Novato Library.

Makerspace at South Novato Library | Novato, California

John believes that virtual reality is going to be transformative for the learning process. He cites a study by Stanford University that saw an 80% retention rate for topics studied using the new platform, which makes sense given that most of us are visual learners. It’s also a lot of fun. I remember being mesmerized by the description of “the Corridor”, the virtual reality file storage system described in Michael Crichton’s visionary novel Disclosure. John hosted a VR demonstration booth at this year’s Marin County Fair, and the long lines were a testament to the public’s interest in this new system.

John sees this as the next major step in communications, with an impact similar to that of microcomputers, the internet, and the cell phone. Right now, affordability is still a major stumbling block, but similar to all of those innovations, costs are already coming down.  The technologies are there for the high speed graphics and CPU processing speeds necessary to run a VR system, and quicker wireless speeds and better resolution are already a reality.  360-degree cameras are also available and getting more affordable, with will broaden the range of possibilities for VR content.

Other major corporations, including Microsoft and Magic Leap, are already well into the design and production of their own virtual reality systems.  And to bring things full circle, John is now consulting with Autodesk on the upcoming release of their virtual reality add-on to Revit, their 3D building information modeling software system.  This will allow architects and their clients to put on headsets and walk together through the conceptual models of their future buildings, to move things around, look at alternatives, and more fully visualize their designs.  It is a bright and exciting future.

Many thanks to John for taking the time to talk with me about his history and what he sees coming in the next years.

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The post Towards an Equitable Technology appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

ELS is excited to announce that Mark Schatz, FAIA, has joined ELS as principal.

Mark has more than 32 years practicing architecture in San Francisco, most recently as a principal with Field Paoli. He has focused his career on community design projects, including more than 50 libraries, community centers, recreation centers, and other neighborhood facilities, most of them in the Bay Area. His projects include the Mayfair Community Center and the Almaden Community Center and Library in San Jose; the Belmont Library in Belmont, California; and the Tustin Library in Tustin, California. At ELS, he is currently working on the joint Redwood City Veterans Memorial Senior Center and YMCA of Silicon Valley.

Mark teaches at U.C. Berkeley, where he also heads the summer architectural internship program, and at California Polytechnic State University. He received his bachelor of arts in architecture from Stanford University and his master of architecture from Harvard University.

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At its monthly meeting on July 18, the College of Marin (COM) Board of Trustees unanimously awarded the partnership of Blach Construction Company (Blach) and ELS Architecture and Urban Design (ELS) with a $24.1 million design-build project at its Indian Valley Campus. The new, long-awaited Miwok Center will support wellness, kinesiology, aquatics, and athletics programs for students and the surrounding community. Funding for the project is made possible by the voter-approved Marin Community College District Bond Measure B.

The new Miwok Center will establish a vibrant hub for COM’s 333-acre Indian Valley Campus. Enhancing the campus and generating greater awareness for the College as a whole, it will attract students interested in pursuing courses in physical education, wellness, and kinesiology. Additionally, it will benefit the public at-large by offering much sought-after access to a comprehensive health and wellness facility.

“We are constantly learning about new research on well-being which causes us to rethink how we can incorporate opportunities for our students, faculty, staff, and the community to instill healthy habits,” said Dr. David Wain Coon, COM superintendent/president. “I envision this as a center where both mind and body can be developed.”

Complete with an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a lap pool, the new Miwok Center will complement its idyllic setting on the Indian Valley Campus. The state-of-the-art building will house a full gymnasium and a fitness center with areas for cardio equipment, weights, and group fitness. Locker rooms, classrooms, offices, a lobby, and space for storage will surround the gymnasium and fitness center. The adjacent, outdoor pools will be used for COM and community aquatics classes, teams, meets, and camps, as well as for recreational purposes.

Award-winning Blach Construction, along with renown, long-time partner ELS Architecture and Urban Design, will erect the new Miwok Center. Using Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, it has the potential to earn zero net energy (ZNE) consumption, where the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site.

“It was a highly competitive selection process, but in the end, Blach + ELS’ innovative proposal fully supports our overall vision of the project,” said Greg Nelson, vice president of finance and college operations. “From the beautiful architectural design to sustainability and total cost of ownership, it was obvious they were the right choice. Their attention to quality and collaborative, service-based approach—coupled with an unprecedented safety record—will undoubtedly result in a facility that is built well and serves College of Marin and the Indian Valley Campus community for years to come.”

Blach and ELS Architecture and Urban Design principals have a successful history of partnering on college and university sports, recreation, and aquatic projects. Their most current design-build construction contract includes the $77M Kinesiology and Wellness Aquatic Center at Cañada College.

“We are honored to have been selected by College of Marin to transform their Indian Valley Campus with a facility that ultimately enables them to enhance their overall offerings,” said Mike Blach, president and CEO of Blach Construction. “Equally as such, we’re excited to partner with ELS again and bring to life another groundbreaking, much-desired wellness and aquatic center that optimizes building performance for our health and our environment.”

The design of the new Miwok Center is currently under review. Groundbreaking is slated for summer 2018 and construction is anticipated to be complete by summer 2020.

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The post College of Marin Awards Blach + ELS New Miwok Center Design-Build Contract appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

At its monthly meeting on July 18, the College of Marin (COM) Board of Trustees unanimously awarded the partnership of Blach Construction Company (Blach) and ELS Architecture and Urban Design (ELS) with a $24.1 million design-build project at its Indian Valley Campus. The new, long-awaited Miwok Center will support wellness, kinesiology, aquatics, and athletics programs for students and the surrounding community. Funding for the project is made possible by the voter-approved Marin Community College District Bond Measure B.

The new Miwok Center will establish a vibrant hub for COM’s 333-acre Indian Valley Campus. Enhancing the campus and generating greater awareness for the College as a whole, it will attract students interested in pursuing courses in physical education, wellness, and kinesiology. Additionally, it will benefit the public at-large by offering much sought-after access to a comprehensive health and wellness facility.

“We are constantly learning about new research on well-being which causes us to rethink how we can incorporate opportunities for our students, faculty, staff, and the community to instill healthy habits,” said Dr. David Wain Coon, COM superintendent/president. “I envision this as a center where both mind and body can be developed.”

Complete with an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a lap pool, the new Miwok Center will complement its idyllic setting on the Indian Valley Campus. The state-of-the-art building will house a full gymnasium and a fitness center with areas for cardio equipment, weights, and group fitness. Locker rooms, classrooms, offices, a lobby, and space for storage will surround the gymnasium and fitness center. The adjacent, outdoor pools will be used for COM and community aquatics classes, teams, meets, and camps, as well as for recreational purposes.

Award-winning Blach Construction, along with renown, long-time partner ELS Architecture and Urban Design, will erect the new Miwok Center. Using Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, it has the potential to earn zero net energy (ZNE) consumption, where the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site.

“It was a highly competitive selection process, but in the end, Blach + ELS’ innovative proposal fully supports our overall vision of the project,” said Greg Nelson, vice president of finance and college operations. “From the beautiful architectural design to sustainability and total cost of ownership, it was obvious they were the right choice. Their attention to quality and collaborative, service-based approach—coupled with an unprecedented safety record—will undoubtedly result in a facility that is built well and serves College of Marin and the Indian Valley Campus community for years to come.”

Blach and ELS Architecture and Urban Design principals have a successful history of partnering on college and university sports, recreation, and aquatic projects. Their most current design-build construction contract includes the $77M Kinesiology and Wellness Aquatic Center at Cañada College.

“We are honored to have been selected by College of Marin to transform their Indian Valley Campus with a facility that ultimately enables them to enhance their overall offerings,” said Mike Blach, president and CEO of Blach Construction. “Equally as such, we’re excited to partner with ELS again and bring to life another groundbreaking, much-desired wellness and aquatic center that optimizes building performance for our health and our environment.”

The design of the new Miwok Center is currently under review. Groundbreaking is slated for summer 2018 and construction is anticipated to be complete by summer 2020.

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The post College of Marin Awards Blach + ELS New Miwok Center Design-Build Contract appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

ELS Principal Geno Yun’s selections were recently featured in Contract Magazine, the leading publication for commercial interior design and architecture. Geno contributed three product selections to the “Designers Select: Retail” gallery. See his choices (9–12) here.

The post ELS Principal Geno Yun featured in Contract Magazine appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.

On October 17, 2017, ULI SF’s Women’s Leadership Initiative  hosted a panel of leaders in the land use industry with the intention of connecting young women to potential internships in the commercial real estate, land use and development space to explore the vast selection of real estate careers.

Maureen Boyer, Associate Principal, and Kelly Elmore, Designer, represented ELS which was one of the dozen-plus participating firms at the event that will offer informational interviews for potential internships for the summer of 2018.

The event included participation from a number of professional women at all stages in their careers in Commercial Real Estate including Development, Construction, Design, Engineering & Financing and undergraduate women from many Bay Area colleges and universities.

Kelly said: “This event offered a great opportunity for the undergraduate women students to talk to mentors about what it’s like to work in the fields of architecture, development, engineering, etc. I noticed that a lot of young women are very passionate but unsure, like I was, about how to choose between their different interests. The mentors advised that one does not have to choose; it’s good to have a variety of interests and skills, as those can be applicable to different professions.”

The post ULI SF’s Women’s Leadership Initiative’s Event: Need an “In” for an Internship appeared first on ELS Architecture and Urban Design.