There are five main phases after a disaster. Chaos is what defines the first stage, where people are undecided about what to do. This stage includes the start of the assessment of the situation by rescue personnel. Next, realization is where the full scale of the damage is assessed and determined. Following this, mobilization means initial repairs to buildings and infrastructure are begun and new buildings start to appear. It is at this point that a stream of supplies for rebuilding becomes critical.

The last two stages are known as “struggle” and “the new normal.” This is where new business models emerge as rebuilding continues. The transformation or new normal is where the landscape looks different than before the disaster and the community starts to accept and adjust to their new environment.

But what does all this mean for the construction companies involved? When we look at reconstruction, the important question becomes, ‘what can we do now to reduce the scale of future destruction?’ Earthquakes, hurricanes, landslides, flooding—how do we make our built environment safer for people?

The answer is, step by step.

“If there were a major earthquake in Los Angeles, with bridges and highways and railroads and airports all shut down and huge buildings collapsing, I don’t care how much planning you do, the first 72 hours is going to be chaotic,” attorney and former U.S. senator Warren Rudman famously said.

For construction companies, disaster response starts alongside the rescue workers, using heavy machinery differently from how it is typically deployed on a construction site. Immediately after a major earthquake like the one in Turkey, infrastructure is either destroyed or compromised. That means roads could be cracked, power lines are lying on the ground, and buildings and bridges are left crumbling or structurally unsound. Amid the destruction, construction workers and machinery clear roads and move debris so that firefighters and paramedics can access damaged buildings and trapped victims.

Construction teams on disaster sites often help the rescue teams directly. For example, bulldozers move the big blockages like concrete, vehicles, and trees to clear workable routes to the emergency sites and help lift debris at the rescue site. And because disasters don’t just strike in wide open spaces, smaller bulldozers get into dense, urban areas to create life-saving access for rescuers to reach survivors.

Track loaders and wheel loaders can also help quickly remove piles of debris from the disaster site. Track loaders can reach more unstable areas due to their low center of gravity, while wheel loaders can offer some real advantages in the right situation with their speed and maneuverability.

Beyond the heavy equipment that clears debris and blockages, there is also other construction equipment that can do double-duty to set up temporary infrastructure in a place that doesn’t have any. Electricity may be non-existent so generators and lights are used to provide the fundamental necessities for rescue workers to do their duties.

But it’s not as if construction workers are just allowed on any site because they have heavy equipment on hand. Many, but not all, companies are properly licensed to support disaster relief efforts, so when disaster strikes, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency will reach out for their assistance. Crews have to share the risks that come with working on a rescue site, but without their help, efforts to save people are much more limited.

A big part of the philosophy behind disaster recovery is ‘build back better,’ which we heard throughout the pandemic, but this approach has been used by groups like the United Nations since 2004. In the aftermath of any natural disaster, there is opportunity for going beyond simply replacing infrastructure, and partnerships and consultations with community groups can help shape what the damaged communities may become as they recover.

The concept of ‘build back better’ refers to the aforementioned reconstruction and rehabilitation phases that help to restore resilience to communities. The aim is to reduce disaster risk and revitalize the economy and individual lives. This means not just rebuilding but building stronger infrastructure and houses, ultimately creating better communities for the survivors.

This work is especially important because it turns out that most Americans, when asked, want to rebuild after a natural disaster strikes. In an NPR poll, 66 percent of people affirmed they would rather rebuild than relocate.

Caroline Blakely, CEO of Rebuilding Together, a not-for-profit company that helps low-income families repair their homes after a disaster, says it’s a common theme after the trauma of disaster. “Usually it’s where they grow up,” Blakely told Denver 7 News. “It’s where their community is and they want to be where they are, and they want to live next to the friends they’ve known and built up over time.”

Rebuilding better after a disaster has long been a call for construction and engineering firms as cities and regions recover from natural disasters. A 2018 report by the National Institute of Building Sciences noted that for every dollar spent on disaster mitigation, six dollars can be saved in recovery from future disasters.

Internationally, an organization called Build Change focuses on making buildings more disaster-resilient, both before and after a disaster occurs, in the world’s hardest-hit areas.

The group trains people in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia on construction practices—using local materials and technology—for a more durable configuration. For example, after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, the organization saw an opportunity to rebuild damaged or destroyed homes in a way that would make them stronger. And, working with the government, Build Change rehabilitated the homes to make them better able to withstand earthquakes.

CEO Elizabeth Hausler talks about the experience in PBS NewsHour. “We try to understand why buildings collapse and why they don’t,” she explains, highlighting issues like heavy roofs on weak walls, poor quality building materials, and poorly-connected columns.

“It does cost money to retrofit, but it will save money in the long run,” she says. “We can show a clear cost-benefit in terms of the value of the building, but that doesn’t even consider the reduction in lives lost, and the reduction in loss to GDP because people are still working.”

And as technology continues to progress, it is also changing how reconstruction is approached. For instance, after the fire of Notre Dame in Paris, a 3D model of the cathedral as it was before the fire was created for reference. This 3D technology is also being used in Ukraine to archive buildings and assist in the reconstruction of important cultural buildings that have been lost.

Other innovations being used for reconstruction include drones. Companies like Skydio produce drones that create digital twins of impacted areas that help provide real-time monitoring and planning for what will be needed for reconstruction following a disaster.

Sesame Solar is another ground-breaking company that has developed generators that can run on solar, wind, and green hydrogen—key in emergencies. These generators can be set up by a single person and can run autonomously for weeks. Construction companies are using these new technologies to help plan and rebuild during recovery efforts.

There is no question that natural disasters are traumatic and devastating events—but they also create space to bring out the best in the community. And it’s the skills and ability of construction teams that lead the way to coming back stronger and safer for whatever comes next.

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USGBC has been facilitating decarbonization and net zero building for well over a decade. These initiatives are not new, Senior Policy Counsel Elizabeth (Liz) Beardsley at USGBC points out. “These are important moments for acceleration in sustainability, and supporting planet and people, that we’ve been working on for a long time with our community. What’s changed is both the urgency and the opportunity.”

The most recent assessment reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have helped drive home this urgency. “That really put a fine point on the need for the building sector to make major changes and called for new buildings to be net zero starting now, and for the rate of retrofits for existing buildings to double,” Beardsley says. “Data shows that nearly everyone is affected in one way or the other already. And I think that sort of palpable proximity is really driving this willingness to take on change and make this transformation for better quality of life in the future.”

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)—which contains around $450 billion in climate spending, with extensive new programs specifically for public and nonprofit buildings—have been other important catalysts.

“That’s something we’ve advocated for years,” she says. “We’re really thrilled that our advocacy has resulted in the Inflation Reduction Act, including funding for buildings and incentives. So, we’re working to help make that investment as effective as possible, helping to spread the word amongst our community on how you can use these different pots of money to make your project even deeper green and lower-carbon, how to take advantage of technical assistance and some of the tax incentives.”

This accomplishment is one element of a holistic mission with many moving parts that share a common goal. “Obviously, LEED is our flagship program for green building certification,” Beardsley says, “but that’s backed up by our whole infrastructure of education, of professional credentials, of communities across the country and around the world, of practitioners that want to make this positive change and folks bringing all those pieces together. And so, now, it’s really the moment to leap ahead with this urgency and opportunity that we have.”

One current focus within this overarching mission is to “help the building community understand the interconnectedness of things,” Beardsley says. Consider, for example, the impacts of green infrastructure to improve the management of stormwater on a building site and to create a landscape that doesn’t require potable water. “That actually also has benefits to climate. Every time you use a gallon of water from your public water system, that had to be pumped and treated. And naturally, if it goes into the wastewater system, it gets treated then pumped again. So, there’s a lot of energy and greenhouse gas emissions associated with that.” Another example is the use of green space to mitigate the impact of heat islands.

“It’s really important to understand those connections,” Beardsley says. “We promote a holistic approach to building. And if climate is the biggest outcome that people are worried about right now, that doesn’t mean you don’t consider the green infrastructure, water efficiencies, where you’re located. That’s been a part of LEED from the beginning.” Indeed, the program encourages a wide range of far-reaching solutions that have an impact over time. This might include reusing an existing building as a way to save embodied carbon, or choosing a building site in a walkable neighborhood with public transportation to save on carbon emissions.

“Understanding this holistic approach has delivered a lot of benefits for climate mitigation adaptation,” Beardsley explains. “Not all of those are easy to quantify; in the policy world there’s a lot of focus on energy, which is obviously critical, but these other impacts do add up, and they improve your overall quality of life and the sustainability of your project.”

USGBC continues to work closely with federal, state, and local government on policies, and the ongoing enthusiasm for this partnership is encouraging. “We’re still seeing real interest in green building policies across the country in different states and localities,” Beardsley says. “What’s really interesting is we are seeing that even for some of the most progressive cities that have benchmarking policies and have building performance standards. They are still embracing LEED and green building as one of their core practices. They see how our integrated design and holistic approach—where you consider how all the aspects of building fit together and you’re reducing waste along with being energy-efficient—how that really delivers the best outcome for them. So, that’s exciting to see as these cities enact their next-gen policies, and LEED is still absolutely part of that.”

USGBC’s LEED Zero program takes it to the next level, recognizing buildings that have achieved net zero over the course of a year in carbon, energy, water, or waste. “We’re excited that in 2022 we hit 100 certified projects,” Beardsley says. “And we are getting market feedback on that program as we look to the future of LEED.”

Presently, USGBC is in the process of forming a series of advisory and technical committees that will be working on the program’s next version, LEED v5. “Considering how the LEED program and the LEED Zero program work together is part of what they’ll be doing,” Beardsley says. “So that’s really exciting. We’ve gotten a lot of input from the market and will continue to do that.”

Over the past year, USGBC has held sessions in which anyone was welcome to attend and give input as to where LEED should go in the future. Drawing on that input, the team produced a paper in June 2022 called The Future of LEED, which outlines the core principles for the next version. At the heart of the issue is “how we support identified imperatives,” Beardsley says. This includes a focus on collaboration and carbon reduction, but with more flexibility, so that lower performers can also jump on board.

Enabling this increased inclusion is important, “because as much as we love LEED, every building is not going to be LEED,” Beardsley says. “We still need [to access] all of that low-hanging fruit—for projects to get on board and make the improvements that they can, which is to reduce their greenhouse gas emission contributions and contribute to quality of life in our cities and suburbs and so on.”

Along with developing the next version of LEED, USGBC is also looking at ways to scale high-performance buildings at the portfolio level. “We are currently working on understanding what the needs are, what the gaps are in the market to serve those portfolio owners and really enable them to develop detailed road maps, and then start to implement them, and be able to track and communicate and share with their investors and their stakeholders where they are in that road map. What we’re seeing is the missing piece and we think we can use all that we’ve learned, and our extensive community and stakeholders, to get something out there that will help make that part of the market transformation happen.”

2023 marks USGBC’s thirtieth anniversary, and while the organization is celebrating the milestone, it is also looking to the future and what comes next. “We’re focused on what we have to do now and our eagerness and our dedication to getting to this next phase,” Beardsley says. “We’re not the type to rest on our laurels at all.”

USGBC’s track record demonstrates this enthusiasm. USGBC has already normalized practices—from green buildings to integrative design—that “used to be considered niche or out there,” she points out. “People saw the benefits, that it just makes common sense.” Now it is time to face the next challenge. “It’s a really exciting time and we’re full steam ahead.”

The post The Future Is Green<p class="company">U.S. Green Building Council</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

While custom-building a second home is the romantic dream of many, the realities can be daunting. That’s why insightful project owners in the Greater Houston Area of Texas call Frankel Design Build. The company provides building services so comprehensive that Frankel is the only name they need to know for projects completed on time, on budget, and to a superb standard.

As Houston’s most comprehensive full-service design-build firm, Frankel Design Build offers its customers every service they need to make their new home a reality—all under one roof. From full, skillfully executed architectural drawings and sophisticated interior design to construction, swimming pools, and stunning outdoor living areas, the Frankel team leads in green design and home care complete with warranties.

For over ten years, the company has delivered “LEED for Homes®” standards while giving clients what they want in terms of style, design, finishes, and function—and all of it a pressure-free experience. And that’s not just talk. The company’s work features in the Earth Month Clean Building and Energy Efficiency Project that’s being headlined by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) this year.

With family values at its core, clients become part of the Frankel Design Build family on every project. “Our project owners are all unique people who come to us because they typically know other people we’ve worked for. They know we’re good listeners. We’re good problem solvers. And we’re here to help them come up with something that they may not have thought of themselves,” says Scott Frankel, President.

Part of this preliminary ideation process is a beautifully appointed showroom where interior designers consult with clients to help them curate an ambiance for their homes that reflects style and glamour and suits their lifestyle.

Excellence rarely goes unnoticed. In 2021, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) awarded Frankel Design Build one of the highest honors in the industry—its Custom Home Builder of the Year Award—a well-deserved recognition of service quality that exceeds expectations.

The company has also won a host of awards for its sought-after LEED-certified green building projects. Frankel prides itself on designing these energy-efficient dwellings that are as comfortable in winter as they are in summer.

These homes also provide better air quality thanks to fewer allergens being circulated inside and improved water consumption which also means a healthy reduction in cost as well as a significantly lower power bill. Add to that the fact that LEED-designed homes have a higher resale value, and this important feature becomes less of a luxury and more of a necessity for any prospective homeowner.

Ensuring customers’ ease and comfort is a big part of the Frankel Design Build commitment. The company works within a forty-mile radius of its hometown, putting all projects within easy reach of all collaborators. It’s also gaining popularity in Washington County.

In addition to customers receiving professionally rendered 3D representations of their proposed homes, making wise and informed design decisions easy, clients also benefit from a comprehensive warranty offer that protects homeowners from construction faults in workmanship and materials.

Frankel Design Build also offers home maintenance that includes keeping clients’ swimming pools clean and beautifully blue. Cementing its relationships with customers in this way allows the team to continue evolving its offerings as customers get to order its home-owner maintenance services online at the click of a button.

As part of its commitment to excellence, the company also belongs to several industry associations. These include the Greater Houston Builders Association (GHBA), the Texas Association of Builders, the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), and others.

Established in 1988 by Jim Frankel, the company evolved from a one-man contractor outfit to a construction leader with over thirty employees. Today, the company includes a construction department, home care and maintenance, architecture, and interior design departments, together with purchasing and estimating.

It also offers its expertise as a full-service pool company that custom-builds every pool in-house. “The company has adapted and evolved to the demands of our clients. Our ability to work together makes our team great. Each person plays a key role in our success,” says Alexis Guillory, Brand Manager and Construction Selection Coordinator. Since Jim Frankel’s sons, Scott and Kevin, joined the company in 2015 as co-presidents, the firm’s revenue also grew by over 500 percent.

And the expansion continues. “I know this is a difficult time for many companies, but we’re actually hiring. We’re moving in a positive direction, growing every year,” Guillory adds.

Not the sort of company that ignores everything but the bottom line, Frankel Design Build is a generous patron of charitable events and efforts that benefit local schools. It constantly encourages clients with school-going children to share news of such opportunities with the team, so, naturally, the schools and recreational centers it builds are particularly close to its heart.

And the company is always looking for ways to support the work these schools do once they’re up and running. “If we’re going to be building beautiful homes there, we want to make the entire community better for our clients,” says Guillory.

Familiar with the current climate of local construction, Frankel Design Build is more aware of the transient nature of economic turns than most.

A case in point is how COVID-19 changed the way people view and use their personal home environments. Spending more time at home, good aesthetics, and more space suddenly went to the top of everyone’s wish list, together with much more emphasis on outdoor entertainment areas. Home offices flourished and swimming pools became more desirable as local recreational centers closed.

Of course, as architectural trends evolve, so do people’s dreams for their homes. And, as the company expands further into Washington county, local preferences will also dictate changes in its designs to adapt to regional tastes and the particular environment.

Guillory points out that the company’s target market of second-home, ranch-style projects set on generously proportioned land around Houston is also growing. The team is charged up and vigorously exploring this relatively new market.

Guillory outlines the opportunity: “It’s really rare for builders to do all their designing in-house. Most times the process involves the client going to an architect, taking the plans to a home builder, and then bringing in an outside interior designer. Instead, we offer all those services under one roof,” she says.

The beauty of this company’s design capabilities is how dynamic and versatile its creatives are. In both its architecture and interior design, it might work in a modern European mode, or in traditional, contemporary, and transitional styles, bringing a freshness to more typical styles.

Priding itself on curating its team as carefully as it does its design principles, Frankel Design Build is confident that its professionals not only meet the high standards its clientele expect but often—pleasantly—surprise them. Above all, project owners know that they can rest assured, with their luxury home projects in exceptionally capable hands.

The post Dazzling Houston with Award-Winning Construction<p class="company">Frankel Design Build</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Headquartered on Bainbridge Island, Washington, this employee-owned business is dedicated not only to creating sustainably constructed buildings that showcase excellent craftsmanship, meticulous attention to detail, and exceptional value, but also to fostering strong community relationships.

Founded in 2006, Clark Construction has participated in numerous multi-million dollar projects, all while remaining dedicated to its group, its partners, and the environment.

“It’s pretty exciting to see the growth and what the company is evolving into,” says President and Founder Rachele Turnbull. “When I started the company I wanted to do construction, but I wanted to do it with my father. My father had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s and dementia, and he wasn’t able to work alone. So I started the company to work with him.”

Turnbull’s father had been a builder in Oregon since 1987, building small and very affordable homes in his community. In fact, he was most proud of building a house and selling it for less than any other house on the market, says Turnbull.

“That was a source of pride for him and what he wanted to do,” she says. “We started Clark and I had a few people that I had worked with on the island that wanted to join and do projects. I talked to other architects and people I knew who wanted to build homes or do projects, and they said, ‘Hey, can you take these projects?’ And I said, ‘We can do that.’ And from there, we just continued to grow.”

Turnbull has a background in large commercial construction, working over the years on projects including university buildings, hospitals, high-tech facilities, and clean rooms, to name a few.

“When I came to Bainbridge, I was doing some commercial work as well as some residential, and I felt that smaller commercial and residential construction could really use the sophisticated tools and management style of the larger general contractors in big commercial construction,” she says. “That’s how I always ran every one of the projects I worked on, with the same systems you would see when you’re building hospitals and universities. And that resonated with a lot of my clients.”

Clark Construction is employee-owned, so as the company continues to grow, those who join aren’t just getting a job; they’re joining a company where they can also be an owner. Of the approximately 80 employees today, about 40 are owners.

“This is also their company,” says Turnbull. “They have that pride of ownership. When we have meetings to talk about what projects we’re taking on, we always ask them, ‘Is there something you want to do? Is there something that resonates with you that we should go after?’ And we’re building the company based on where the employees want to go and where our clients want to take us.”

This includes the company’s commitment to sustainability, innovation, and affordability, which is always going to be the core of what they want to give back to the community, adds Turnbull. “We always say, people before profit.”

That commitment to sustainability is holistic, she says. It’s not just about green building practices, but also about building sustainable places that people can afford and maintain. It’s also about sustainability within the company, educating and elevating the people and creating a place where the family can grow, learn, and build their entire career in the company. “Sustainability is what we strive for in everything we do,” Turnbull says, “not just in the building we do.”

This means it’s not only building materials Clark is focusing on. One of the company’s projects, the Loom House, is the first fully certified Living Building Challenge residential remodel ever built.

Established in 2006, the non-profit International Living Future Institute established the challenge to support the evaluation of sustainability in the built environment through a stated philosophy, an advocacy tool, and a certification program.

“I believe it’s still the only one, and it’s [aimed at] those projects that are not sustainable for anybody to build,” Turnbull says. “Somebody has to be willing to push the envelope at some point, and these clients did.”

The Loom House, a 3,200-square-foot home made up of an existing north and south home connected by a large outdoor courtyard, was completely renovated to improve the building envelope, provide self-sufficient systems, and offer updated interiors while preserving the original architectural character of the home.

The owner’s electric vehicles and bicycles are housed on the property in a new, 725-square-foot detached carport and storage room, and the interiors feature locally made, custom furniture and home accents made of organic materials.

Surrounding land includes Japanese maples, blooming trees, rhododendrons, and azaleas, while urban agriculture is provided by a mycological foraging forest on the property, with a variety of edible berries and vegetables.

South home’s photovoltaic system powers the entire property while battery storage ensures energy resiliency. Resources are handled and conserved with the use of a greywater treatment system and rainwater cisterns.

Clark’s reHOME Project is notable for demonstrating how it’s possible to reduce construction waste, keep materials out of landfills, and offer affordable homes for communities by applying smart design and strict sourcing strategies.

The award-winning project at Morales Farm emerged from the combined efforts of Clark Construction, Coates Design, Housing Resources Bainbridge, and Friends of the Farms, and features three small cottages constructed with donated labor and salvaged components to offer local farm workers inexpensive living. More than 26,000 pounds of building supplies, with a market worth of nearly $125,000, were kept out of the landfill during the construction process.

“We learned so much and can push that forward to our other projects,” Turnbull says. “Not ones that we want to be LBC [Living Building Challenge] certified, but ones that want to do whatever they can that’s realistic and practical and sustainable.”

The City of Bainbridge Island awarded Clark Construction another unique project involving converting the former Harrison Medical Center into a new police station for the Bainbridge Island Police Department, and a Municipal Court.

“When we were awarded that project, it was really exciting because a lot of demo of new materials was necessary,” says Turnbull. “We had a recycled-material project going on, and I thought, it’s such a great symbiotic relationship between the two. Instead of going in and demoing and tearing things out, which would have been much less expensive, we disassembled everything and reused the product.”

This involved and costly process—funded by Clark—even required volunteers to pull drywall screws out of the studs so that the company could reuse the studs for the reHOME Project.

“That was something really exciting that we could do, where we could pay attention to multiple projects with demolition in them,” says Turnbull. “We focus on what makes sense to reuse, and then everything else, of course, is not put in a landfill but recycled.”

The company also addresses affordable and income-qualified housing, completing projects for tribes as well as for a development group in Port Townsend.

Turnbull is excited. “Not only are we building affordable and transitional housing at as low a cost as possible, but still building a great structure,” she says. “We’re excited that we’re able to take a lot of those things that we’ve learned in projects like reHOME and Loom and put them forth for our income-qualified partners.”

Turnbull is also proud of the ongoing community involvement, and employees who strive to ensure Clark continues to achieve success.

“It comes from our people,” she enthuses. “Those are the people that come to work at Clark. If you didn’t already have that ingrained in who you are, you wouldn’t even gravitate to our company.”

Along with success in the sustainable construction industry, Clark has the distinction of being female-founded, not that common in a male-dominated field.

“Less than 11 percent of the construction / general contractor community are women, and less than four percent in the trades,” says Turnbull. “We focus on what’s important to women workers, and that shows in the fact that about 40 percent of our team is women.”

Turnbull prefers the term female-founded to female-owned, as owning implies one woman owning more than 51 percent of the company, which has never been her intent.

“It was about having multiple women and multiple underrepresented groups being able to own the company,” she says. “That is the vision I had and the direction the company wanted to go. So, using the phrase ‘female founded’ is important. I don’t think people realize that being women-owned requires that kind of constraint in the company.”

As for bringing more women into the industry, Turnbull believes there’s a lack of awareness in girls and women who believe construction is a “guy’s world,” but she says it’s amazing how many people on the development side in particular are women.

“It’s a fun dynamic to be working in. We have women consultants who are the engineers and the architects, tons of women in those industries. For the developers we’re working with, South West Group has a woman in charge of all the projects we’re working on,” Turnbull says. “There are a lot of women in the industry, and to have another woman in construction that they’re dealing with is really nice.”

While there are not as many women running the construction side of projects, women in construction do get excited to hear about female founders and leaders in the industry. It allows girls and women to see themselves in those roles. They can see the potential.

“That’s really exciting because we can also say this is a project that has a woman architect, a woman developer, a woman manager,” she says. “To say we’re able to do that is incredible.”

As for milestones, while many businesses in the building industry might say they want to be a huge company with 300 employees, that’s never been Clark’s goal.

“We don’t say we want to do $100 million in revenue or even $2 million in revenue,” Turnbull says. “We say we want to expand our reach in our community. We’re getting well known for that out there. Our milestones are expanding our reach, and who we are in our community, to more of the region.”

The company currently has a lot in the works, including projects in affordability and community land trust homes, as it continues to glean invaluable knowledge from past projects and moves forward sustainably and with integrity.

“That’s what we want here. We want to be the first company on everybody’s mind,” says Turnbull.

While unearthing builders who are focused on community, sustainability, and people as a whole isn’t the easiest task, Clark Construction will continue to forge its own path. “That’s what we want people to think of in the community. We want to be the example, not just for builders, but for any company in the area. We want to be the example.”

The post Putting People Before Profit<p class="company">Clark Construction</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Then working for a very large power plant engineering and construction company, he designed and started up nuclear, coal, and natural gas power plants, many of them billion-dollar-plus projects. This experience not only gave him an understanding of the inner workings of large-scale engineering and construction projects but also of how much the power plant industry was changing.

Along with investors, Fischette founded Concord Engineering Group, Inc. in 1989. The fledgling company held onto its big power plant clients at the beginning, but, “big central power plants weren’t necessarily the market for us,” says Fischette.

The turn to emerging technologies
The company started moving toward change, embracing emerging technologies—in Fischette’s words, “exploring the other side of electric meters and gas meters,” and not building interiors. This included energy-efficiency technologies like heating, air conditioning, lighting, and pumping.

“There were many new emerging markets and industries developing, and we felt that’s where the future was,” says the company founder and Chief Executive Officer. “These projects were more granular than a $1 billion power plant, so it was easier to gain experience while developing a wider client base.”

Since the cycle of these projects was relatively short, Fischette and his team quickly discovered what worked and didn’t work, and were not tied to any one client, which meant Concord could diversify. “As a small company, you could work with many different clients, and not feel so specialized in terms of your revenue stream. It was a really exciting time for us.”

Sustainable from the start
Fischette’s consuming interest in energy efficiency grew. He pondered on what he could also do for buildings to make them safer, operate at a lower cost, and be better for the planet. With the way things have developed in the 34 years since Concord Engineering Group was created, the word sustainability means much more than just energy efficiency, he says.

“Global energy independence, climate change, and the need for renewables are what matter today. For example, when we tell clients that we designed earth-coupled geothermal heating and cooling systems in the early ‘90s, it confuses them. Most think it’s a new technology.”

Today, Concord offers energy and management services, commercial engineering, building and infrastructure commissioning, health and science, and power engineering / chilled water and steam. The company’s many successes over its three-plus decades are the result of hard work, vision, and plenty of persuasion.

In the early days, not much technology was aimed at energy sustainability, and there were few suppliers. Despite the benefits of greener technologies, not all clients were swayed by talk about renewable energy, microgrids, geothermal heating and cooling, or the need to curb carbon emissions to reduce global warming.

By his estimates, one out of ten clients recognized the growth potential. “We had to convince people these technologies saved energy,” says Fischette, “and if you even did save energy, you couldn’t track it as well as you can today.”

Once projects were underway, it soon became clear the results were worth it. Soon, Concord began attracting customers embracing its technologies and solutions, education in particular. School boards and colleges understood energy-saving calculations and were even conducting similar research themselves in some cases.

“That was sort of the kickstarter, and I think you see that a lot today,” says Fischette. “Most institutions—colleges, teaching hospitals—that’s where innovation happens. That foot in the door for energy efficiency was what led us to grow our engineering expertise in the design of systems for new buildings. If an architect or developer was looking to put together a design team to build a new facility, we were now becoming accomplished in all the building systems, and MEP&F [mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection].”

Multiple markets
Today, MEP&F are the primary skill sets of Concord’s engineering department, which maintains a strong focus on building systems. The company has become proficient in designing systems for hotels, casinos, schools, hospitals, and everything in between.

A combination of a construction boom in education and not enough engineers to design systems has opened plenty of opportunities. Concord has successfully brought on competent engineers with expertise in designing new construction or retrofitting old buildings.

“Having all that knowledge—knowing what energy costs would be, what those systems are, and realizing what the better technologies are—is giving us an edge,” says Fischette.

Although there were other competitors in the building design industry at the time, most of them were still using older, energy-inefficient lighting and heating technologies, while Concord was active in geothermal heating and cooling. “Most of my clients don’t believe that we were doing those systems 30 years ago,” he says.

For Fischette, his greatest source of pride is Concord’s incredible reach across many markets and industries, which is also most perplexing to its clients, who see a firm of only 100 persons, although growing.

Today, Concord Engineering has national brand recognition in skill sets such as Microgrids and gaming / hospitality facility engineering design; however, many of its skill sets still haven’t reached the national market.

The company has a broad portfolio from its Energy Advisory Group which manages the supply of electric and gas commodity contracts to its Building Commissioning Group, which ensures that clients’ building systems are designed, installed, and operating to their highest potential.

The Engineering Groups are divided into four sectors: Commercial Building Mechanical Electrical Plumbing (MEP); Power, Infrastructure and Substations; Health + Science MEP; and Energy Efficiency / Decarbonization. “Each of our Engineering sectors has different cultures, engineering pedigrees, and different clients, which makes us very valuable to clients where there’s an overlap in skills needed,” says Fischette.

Currently, Concord has four offices. This includes Voorhees NJ, Philadelphia, PA, Atlantic City, NJ, and Princeton, NJ, with future offices in the works. And with professional engineering licenses in 50 states, the company can perform any services across the United States and North America and has completed several projects in Europe and the Middle East.

From inception to completion
As a full-service energy asset management firm, the Concord Engineering Group works with clients through the full duration of a plant, facility, or campus life cycle. This generally starts with energy and infrastructure master planning, moving on to developing ‘cost and saving’ modeling to support investment.

Once projects are funded, the company moves into engineering design construction support and commissioning. “Our goal is to be a lasting provider of solutions through the entire life cycle of the project because what might have worked decades ago doesn’t necessarily work in today’s climate,” says Fischette. “Electrification of buildings and vehicles, for example.”

With a client focus on private, institutional, and public sectors—typically larger campus or bigger-scaled buildings—Concord strives to connect on a corporate or system-wide level to encourage clients and employees to develop trusting relationships. In that way, repeated work is less of a hurdle, since the company isn’t introducing its people to the client’s specific needs for every project.

“As a strength, I would say we have two defining qualities: a deep pedigree to support the tasks at hand, and responsiveness, which we think is the most important quality a consulting firm can have,” comments Fischette.

Changing times
As a veteran of the energy industry, Fischette has seen the global energy sector grow and adapt to new technologies. Changes in the world’s energy sectors are often the result of not only innovation, but environment, politics, and finance. These include the company moving toward onsite generation in the early 2000s, at the time of the Enron debacle.

In 2012 Hurricane Sandy caused significant damage to New York and New Jersey, and Hurricane Maria in 2017 hit Saint Croix and Dominica, decimating much of Puerto Rico’s electrical grid. These disasters and others made governments and individuals alike re-examine power plants, identify the need for on-site generators to provide energy resiliency for hospitals and mission-critical facilities, and microgrids to meet future demands.

These natural disasters saw Concord become involved in creating solutions and were a big part of the company’s growth.

“There were multiple grid outages and unreliability of the electric grid that were catalysts,” says Fischette. “People thought of diesel at the time, but they found that if you ran the technologies on natural gas, you could be very efficient, and they provided returns on investment.

“There was also heat recovery. Instead of all that hot exhaust gas going up the stack, we were able to pull heat from it—free heat!—and heat buildings with it.”

Diverse projects
Frequently taking on projects of up to a billion dollars, Concord Engineering stays in character and continues to innovate. One of its most recent large-scale works is the Bellwether Project. It’s an adaptive reuse of a century-old oil refinery, closed since 2019, transforming it into a logistics and lifestyle campus. Formerly the PES refinery in South Philadelphia, the site is being redeveloped by HRP (formerly Hilco Redevelopment Projects).

“Philadelphia is becoming one of the U.S. meccas of life science laboratory and gene research, so you see a lot of buildings being adapted,” says Fischette. Many are old offices or manufacturing buildings. Various plans were mooted to revive them as commercial offices before COVID, but the plans evaporated as people gave up offices for working at home. With high ceilings and extremely solid floors, these locations are ideal for heavy laboratory equipment.

Along with Bellwether, Concord is seeing many other adaptive reuse projects across the U.S., including massive, long-abandoned, coal-fired power plants and steel mills. They are being cleaned up or demolished, many repurposed as million-square-foot distribution and logistics centers.

In many cases, these sites require energy infrastructure master plans that allow them to have energy resiliency and de-carbonization technologies like massive rooftop solar and utilize them all in one system.

Looking back on his career in the energy sector and the company’s many accomplishments, Michael Fischette is eager to see what the future holds for Concord.

“This amazing, 100-person firm has a broad range of services that firms of 1,000 and 20,000 aspire to have,” he says. “Concord has everything from an energy advisory group that manages thousands of electric accounts and buys and sells electricity and manages commodities to engineering and healthcare, power and infrastructure, commercial buildings, some construction management, building commissioning and retro-commissioning, and making sure these buildings are operating the way they’re intended to,” he explains.

“We’ve got this whole spectrum, and I think that’s the big message: we are so broad in our expertise, and need to get the message out there so we can continue to grow.”

The post The Power of Persuasion<p class="company">Concord Engineering Group</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

An architect and developer/investor, respectively, Daigle and Arista got into the affordable housing and low-income tax credit sectors together, embracing the business side of operations. Dakota Partners was then developed around ‘creating housing that matters,’ a credo that is embraced at all levels of the company as owners and employees alike are passionate about building good quality, sustainable housing for people with moderate income levels.

Dakota is best known today for projects like those it has done in Connecticut, including the apartment rental communities Oak Tree Village and Columbus Commons. Projects like these have garnered the firm many awards, including the distinction of top Passive House affordable housing developer in America.

Vice President of Acquisitions and Development Chris French stresses that this type of housing is more important than ever as, for so many people across the nation, the cost of living has outpaced income growth. “We take [our] mission very seriously,” French stresses, and there has hardly been a more important time for the services Dakota provides than right now.

Sustainable building is a core practice of the firm, as it represents a more modern take on engineering, design, and construction. The practice considers the emissions a development gives off against what it consumes, to get as close to net-zero emissions as possible. Dakota Partners builds to a standard called Passive House, taking into consideration its envelope, insulation, air sealing, thermal bridging in windows, doors, and entrances, and so on. The distinction is recognized worldwide as the best way to build energy-efficient residences.

A building with a Passive House Plus rating consumes as much energy as it produces—“truly net-zero,” as French defines it—and is the grading that Dakota pursues in its projects. Beyond the green aspects of this type of building, a more efficient household means a lower utility bill for whoever lives within, leading, in turn, to more cash flow and property value for the tenant. “Sustainability can be economically beneficial in the long-term,” French adds.

This net-zero emissions goal puts a lot of pressure on engineering and construction companies to lower the carbon footprint of newer developments and puts added costs onto developments to ensure this. However, the positive side of this is that many industries are leaning toward energy efficiency and climate control, which means new funding sources have become available in recent years, from solar and energy efficiency rebates to subordinate loan sources and grants. As time goes on, there are more funding sources for sustainable development as the construction and development industries are beginning to realize the benefits of adopting sustainable practices.

Dakota is not alone in its views or its efforts on sustainable building. The firm works in partnership with architects, engineers, and employees to bring a project to fruition, but part of its goal is to find new and creative ways to fund projects, a challenge it loves to meet. In affordable housing, one must bring together every possible funding source to finish a project and cope with high interest rates and construction costs.

It is no small task to be as committed to sustainable practices as Dakota is, but the firm is always ready to meet expectations. French says that community partners are also a critical part of what Dakota Partners looks to do, especially in the affordable housing space. The company has dealings with partners at the federal, state, and local levels, with the biggest of these being local non-profit organizations.

Building affordable housing particularly benefits tenants in serious situations, so Dakota often joins with these organizations to provide support services within the property. For example, in Rochester, New York, it found a partner in Willow Center, an organization for survivors of domestic violence. “Our goal is to enhance our commitment to providing supportive services in partnering with talented local non-profits to do so,” French affirms.

The construction and development industries are dealing with the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic, and French notes that the spaces are still heavily affected by ongoing supply chain issues, combined with rising costs in construction and insurance. However, Dakota Partners is still quite active as a developer. French notes ten active deals the firm has in New York and several in Connecticut, Virginia, Maryland, and Ohio.

As the company continues an expansion in the mid-Atlantic region, French feels that this growth and the increased level of competition in the sector are daunting yet exciting challenges. He believes that now is one of the most challenging times for these spaces, thanks to lingering effects from the pandemic, as costs are rising by twenty to thirty percent year-on-year along with rising interest rates, which creates no shortage of financial difficulties.

French acknowledges that companies must be very nimble at times like these and hope that the financial markets will calm once interest rates decrease. The firm is focused on the ongoing affordable housing crisis and is doing all it can to find and access the resources needed to weather the storm.

Dakota Partners will be looking to grow and expand throughout the rest of the year, albeit safely and responsibly. The firm’s expansion into the mid-Atlantic region is ongoing, as is further expansion into Virginia, Maryland, and Ohio. There is even potential for opportunities in areas like the Carolinas and New Jersey, in which the company is not yet established. French also hopes to pick up more work in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, as the firm has around twenty deals at various stages of development across its various regions. Atop this, Dakota will likely see its units double in ownership in the next five to seven years.

Dakota Partners “is highly active with lots of deals in the pipeline,” French affirms, and the firm shows no signs of slowing down despite a tumultuous development market. The company works to create what it refers to as ‘the Dakota difference,’ and with its commitment to Passive House principles in its projects, that very difference is what helps it stand out amongst other developers—and is also what has kept it going strong for nearly two decades.

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Performance Engineering Group’s proven theories on preventing utility waste in large buildings have some of the biggest names in property management paying attention. Because, in the process of ‘listening’ to buildings—as its founder likes to say—the company provides owners with data proving that most multi-story buildings like hotels, office blocks, mixed residential buildings, and even hospitals are not geared toward optimum utility savings.

Uncovering the resources wasted annually often comes as a shocking but welcome eye-opener to building owners. The company’s data is supported by The International Association of Plumbing & Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), the developer of a next-generation water demand calculator tool. The Performance Engineering team had the data needed to validate the tools that they were creating. The company predicts that the accuracy of the new tool will fundamentally change how water consumption and supply gets measured in building design going forward.

The company is forever innovating, and its solutions also include ways of optimizing equipment at low-to-no cost to extend the lifespan and minimize the cost of ownership by reducing wear and tear on equipment and systems.

More good news is that the company is saving property owners significant amounts of money throughout the existence of their buildings, all while taking the pressure off the environment and the infrastructure and labor resources needed by local authorities to provide high volumes of utilities like water. As part of water conservation, its new booster pump systems are catching on fast. Many of these improvements are significantly less expensive than a direct replacement of the original capacity with like features. The company is continuously improving the engineering to generate outcomes so owners can achieve tremendous savings on their utilities in the long run. As shown by a twenty-five percent growth in just over a year, customers agree.

The company saves customers far more money over time than the initial installation costs in the start-up capital outlay. “When we do booster pump analyses, considering the cost of construction versus the operational costs is important as [this technology] can reduce operational energy costs by eighty to ninety percent,” says President Alan Deal, an outdoor enthusiast passionate about engineering and protecting natural resources.

As a longtime expert in assessments of pumping systems for potable water, process water, and other hydronic systems, the company has become the go-to solutions provider for many forward-thinking building owners, making this one of its most sought-after services at present. “We found a willing partner with Grundfos Pumps local distributor H.S. BuyVan Associated, who collaborates with us on pumping arrangements and motor optimization,” shares Deal. The systems offered will streamline construction and reduce the building space and infrastructure required for these types of essential systems.

“It is the next phase of what we want to get involved with. We have been doing this type of work for a long time… We eat, sleep, and drink this philosophy. I’ve taught plumbing engineers how to size water heating and pumps for a long time,” Deal says, pointing out that far too little has changed in plumbing over the last century. “One of the things that have been puzzling is that we have always referenced ancient procedures that have been around for almost a hundred years. Everybody knows that [old systems] are generously oversized, and there is a risk with that.”

One of the potential problems posed by too-large water heating systems is waterborne disease contamination risks due to stagnant water in building distribution piping. Mitigating this, of course, takes precedence over preserving resources like water and electricity.

Performance Engineering Group is typically employed by building owners and managers who need to replace equipment like water heaters. As it is common for older buildings to have lived through several upgrades in their time, fixtures are often changed and then forgotten. Deal points out that, even though the older units often still work, measuring utility consumption has taught company engineers that a reduction of as much as ninety-eight percent on equipment run-time is not uncommon once the team makes comparatively minor adjustments.

“It is not an anomaly. We seem to run into it everywhere. It has now been included in the energy code fifteen years ago but nobody seems to pay attention to it,” Deal says, equating the lack of code enforcement on this issue to mattress tags that come with the threat of prison if removed. “We are not trying to enforce the code, however. We are just trying to help people make better decisions and not waste as much money.”

Not all building owners realize the importance of conducting utility audits on large buildings. Many believe that if everything is working and tenants are happy then their job is done but turning a blind eye to waste just extends the problem. “It is a team effort. Having a willing owner and facility director who get that they can achieve a great amount of improvement and spend less money is the part that is incongruent with most construction. We are spending less to get more,” Deal says of the company’s offering.

COVID-19 also provided an opportunity to extend its product range by diversifying its selection of energy sources and equipment. Its own building systems now include best practice LED lights, night setback settings to lower central heating during the wee hours, occupancy sensors, remote workforce settings, plus recycling and scrapping metal and other waste solutions. “We have relationships with organizations that will re-purpose leftover materials from construction projects.”

Growing up with seven siblings as the son of a partner in a water heater supply firm, Deal became taken with the concept of measuring resource consumption during a school project in third or fourth grade. “It was a function of starting to learn data collection, and it just stuck with me,” he says. “So when we get into places where we see these massive systems and we see them barely being used, we know we have to do a better job if we are going to do anything toward sustainability.”

According to Deal, the change can be as extreme as eight-inch piping that allows for pumping 500 gallons per minute that should have been installed with two-inch piping that allows for pumping fifty gallons per minute, yet makes no difference to the user experience. “That is the kind of sustainability that, in my mind, we need to implement so that we can do a better job of building,” he says.

Deal went into business with his father nearly a decade after completing his studies and working as a performance contractor on energy conservation for boiler installations, mainly at air bases. By then, the original company had focused its offering primarily on vehicle wash applications, but he opted to continue moving in his existing direction.

Starting out providing natural gas heating systems for hot water supply, hydronic heating, and radiant snow melting systems, the company completed thousands of projects in the commercial, agriculture, industrial, and residential markets. Later, it moved into performance contracting and steam-plant-to-hydronic-system conversions at numerous military bases and similar central energy plants. To further enhance its capabilities, the company incorporated optimized pumping and delivery systems over time, as a necessary part of successful boiler plant capacity reduction.

Today, its team of twelve guides the company in gaining an ever-growing knowledge base and implementable engineering solutions that truly set it apart from what is currently available on the market. “We have a lot of people in our organization that bring different ideas and solutions to the table. When we get together, the combination is good. We get to find resolutions for doing the best thing possible. This business does not start with any one person but with collaboration. We work from there,” says Deal. The result is a remarkable level of innovation in the field that has garnered the company the respect of many and longstanding customer relationships.

One example of such a relationship can be seen in a six-year project that will soon be concluded for Livonia Public Schools. It took two cycles of performance contracting for the school facilities team and administration to conclude that a completely new approach would be the only solution to achieve their building performance goals.

“The projects involved collaboration with a new start-up partner, Unified Building Systems Engineering, which would use our data collection process and analysis to revise the building systems heating plants and associated delivery systems,” explains Deal. The other key collaborator was Hamilton Engineering, a division of Armstrong Steam, based in Livonia, that provided the engineered boiler systems pre-packaged for rapid and seamless installation during the summer.

“We helped them to discover their true building loads through the building management system and other data sources. The results allowed them to replace all the building heating plant systems in thirty-four buildings with sixty percent less boiler and pumping capacity, ninety percent less pumping horsepower, and using forty percent less energy,” says Deal. “The highlight was that they did these projects with $4,000,000 in sinking fund monies instead of having to pass a separate millage for the original system capacity replacement.”

Doing good comes naturally for this team, which generously contributes to groups like U.S. Green Building Council houses of worship members, which benefit from pro bono reviews of facilities and equipment assessments and extensive consultations. “We are occasionally asked for donations of replacement water heating systems for homeless shelters, mission-based organizations and the like, and we always try to respond with the most appropriate technology that will provide the lowest cost of operation and most dependable operation for their needs. It is amazing how a person’s disposition can be lifted with clean clothes and a warm shower!”

Just as important as being a part of the future of education is to the team, being a driving factor in the future of accurate building performance metrics is also a matter of great importance. “Virtual reality/augmentation/simulations can distort perceptions. Seeing is believing. We measure, we meter, and we provide real results above and beyond what we say we will,” Deal continues.

Deal is also hopeful that the world’s mission to accomplish net zero will remain underscored by the understanding that lasting solutions must encompass a consideration for their overall impact on the environment and that automatically reaching toward electrification is not the only option. The team’s hard-earned experience in the field proves that paying attention and tailoring options instead of reaching for the cheapest or easiest solution may be best in the long run.

Because building a veritable knowledge bank of everything that can go wrong and should be considered in optimized solutions has taken so many years, leveraging such valuable knowledge is no small matter. It is arguably also the company’s most prized factor that leads to remaining in the lead in its field. In 2016, it was honored with the Governor of Michigan’s Energy Excellence Award for energy innovation and unique project results in senior-housing mechanical system renovations for the second consecutive year.

“To purposefully test system limits and learn from them is the number-one technology. Ultimately, this technology distills what is important and what is not. That is what takes time,” Deal says. Just like the company itself, the value of this tireless work has indeed stood the test of time.

The post Spending Less to Get More<p class="company">Performance Engineering Group</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Dedicated to the revitalized vibrancy and ongoing development of the communities in which it operates—with every new construction thoughtfully planned to enhance the surrounding area—Regan Development strives for community improvement, from housing options for young working families to seniors and retail establishments in urban and suburban locations.

Regan Development not only builds communities but also retains long-term ownership in them, contributing to the upkeep of the high standards set during construction. Whether it’s restoring and enhancing communities or developing new structures and renovating existing ones, the company delivers quality upgrades throughout New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.

The company also works on general neighborhood community retail, mixing residential with community-oriented commercial spaces such as affordable daycares, medical, and non-profit office space.

Regan’s been conducting LIHTC (Low-Income Housing Tax Credit) work in New York and New Jersey since 1989, with more than 30 developments to their name over the past 30 years.

Created under the Tax Reform Act of 1986, LIHTC is a dollar-for-dollar credit for affordable housing in the U.S., allotting approximately $8 billion in annual budget to issue tax credits for acquisition, rehabilitation, or new construction of rental housing for lower-income households.

“It’s just our niche and what we do,” says President Larry Regan. “Most of our deals in one sense or another have affordable components.”

A second-generation family business composed mainly of Larry and his brother Ken, Regan Development recently ushered in the third generation when Larry’s sons, Jeremy and Gabe, were brought on board. Keeping business in the family is only part of the company’s recipe for success, Regan adds.

“We made a conscious decision early on in our career that we didn’t want to be a mega development firm,” says Regan. “A lot of the other tax credit developers that started around then now have an East Coast or national presence, but we chose to keep it slightly smaller, keeping overhead down, but still working hard and doing two or three tax credit developments in multiple states a year.”

Regan Development was able to achieve its goals while keeping the business manageable, with fewer employees in a smaller company, cultivating a family feel that embraces customers as well.

“It resonates with the local leaders and municipalities where we do business,” Regan says. “These are family assets, they’re not corporate assets, and we’re a family business. When we go in for approvals from local leaders and look them in the eye on day one before we even start a project, we tell them that these are our assets. This is what we have, and we keep them in our portfolio.”

This means Regan doesn’t get approvals and flip them to a developer that the town or city wouldn’t know, he adds. It’s a long-term commitment. “This is our business, we’ve been doing it a long time, and we plan on continuing to do it much longer.”

The company has worked on a number of noteworthy projects over the years, including the Lion Factory renovations in Troy, NY. A prime example of an industrial structure from the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the six-story, 246,000-square-foot Lion Factory Building is historically and architecturally important, and its renovation will respect and highlight key historic characteristics.

“We do a fair amount of historic adaptive reuse, probably eight or nine historic developments since the early ‘90s, and we like it,” Regan says. “We don’t get scared off by the requirements of rebuilding and we realize that the tax credit that comes at both the state and federal level are very good tools to help sources meet uses for development.”

The renovated building will contain 151 residential rental apartments, including 115 one-bedroom, 33 two-bedroom, three three-bedroom, and a live-in, two-bedroom superintendent’s apartment. A wide range of households and families will be able to afford the spaces, and there will be no income limitations on six extra rental apartments available at market rates.

Additionally, 25 of the one-bedroom apartments will be reserved for victims of domestic violence as part of Regan Development’s commitment to providing for the less fortunate.

The Lion Factory will also have 31,500 square feet of space on the main floor dedicated to local businesses and commercial offices.

“We’re also one of the first projects using New York State Clean Energy Incentive funding for a historic adaptive reuse,” says Regan. “It’s not zero energy, but for a historic adaptive reuse, it has a much higher level of green features and attributes than a typical historic adaptive reuse.”

The project required coordination between the New York State Historical offices, the National Park Service, and the New York State Energy reviewers, along with the HCR, the funders for the tax credits that provide the clean energy incentive.

Historic building renovations are also closely reviewed by historic aficionados, so Regan Development paid particular attention when energy rating the windows to ensure renovations wouldn’t affect any of the historic approvals.

“It was important just bringing everybody to the table to make this project an example of how green energy improvements and historic adaptive reuse can work together,” Regan says. “I think it’s being looked at by the state of New York’s Homes and Community Renewal offices as a positive example of how that can happen, bringing an all-electric-energy building and pairing it with a large historic adaptive reuse.”

The structure also boasts a geothermal field for geothermal heating and cooling, he adds, a big plus that really makes a difference.

“With the geothermal, that all translates to very reasonable energy costs and usage for our tenants,” says Regan. “You don’t usually see this level of green energy when you’re doing a historic adaptive reuse.”

Another recent and impressive project saw Regan Development collaborating with the State of New York Housing and Community Renewal and the Adirondack Sports Council to build 60 residential rental units in Lake Placid—with two admirable purposes.

MacKenzie Overlook, the LEED Gold certified housing unit named for Olympic bobsledder Ronald MacKenzie, will not only offer residents and workers in Lake Placid and all of Essex County much-needed new, high-quality housing; the building also housed athletes competing in the 31^st FISU World University Games from January 12-22, 2023. The Regan Development team was proud to partner with The Adirondack Sports Council to provide housing for these exceptional student athletes.

“We were called in by the municipality, the county, the local hospitality industry trade group in Lake Placid, and most importantly, by the state senator,” says Regan. “They were trying to solve a problem in Lake Placid for service employees at the hospitality industry spots because it’s basically a tourist area that provided nowhere to live, with rents skyrocketing.” Prior to this project, no new affordable housing has been created in Lake Placid or Essex County over the past 10 years.

The Adirondack Sports Council took occupancy in early September and vacated following the Games in January, with permanent tenants moving in to the building on the first of March, which was always the plan. “It’s a great story, and we were pleased and proud to be a part of it since before we even put a shovel in the ground, making not only the host spot for the Olympic student games but also the workforce housing on a permanent basis,” says Regan.

This kind of drive and commitment is typical for a company that isn’t afraid to go into communities when they need help the most—meaning when they’re “down on their luck,” he adds. This is why Regan Development doesn’t shy away from projects where towns may have lost a major employer, where the economy has gone south, or where the median incomes are going lower.

“Everything’s cyclical,” Regan says. “We did our first deal in Buffalo about 18 years ago, and now it’s going through a resurgence, where the rents are increasing rather than decreasing, multicultural immigrant populations are finding it a great place to live, and it’s becoming a thriving and dynamic place. Also in Albany—again, same thing. People are looking for places to live that are affordable.”

Regan Development is striving to design something that’s green-built, zero energy, and all-electric, and do it in a way that provides new, clean, energy-efficient housing to communities receptive to what the company wants to do, Regan says. “And if they want the workforce housing and they want the commercial community components that go with it, that’s what we’re looking to accomplish.”

With a third generation now ready to help achieve those goals of reaching further and doing more, company milestones include looking to reach out into Massachusetts while continuing to do amazing projects in the home states of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

“We just enjoy working with the state where we’re working in the municipalities,” Regan says. “We’re all about doing projects that will improve communities. We’re not just generic builders, we’re looking to find those transformational types of projects that transform communities into a better place.”

The post Transforming Communities Through Affordable Housing<p class="company">Regan Development</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

For some people, air quality has always been at the forefront of a healthier and better way of life. In particular, Giancarlo Sessa, Aedan Fida, and his brother Joe Fida have done more than just think about air quality, they have acted on it, forming Blade Air, a Toronto-based company that is at the forefront of sustainable solutions for indoor air quality.

From a small start-up in 2017, Blade Air’s sustainable purification systems are now helping people thrive in thousands of public buildings across Canada.

This all started when the three were in university.

“All three of us have an Italian background,” says Aedan Fida, co-founder of Blade Air. “When Joe and I were growing up, we lived right down the street from our grandparents, and Joe was the first son in our family. So every time that my grandparents needed help, Joe would be the one over there working in the garden.

Then, when Joe and I were living together at university, his way of dealing with the stress of engineering was to grow fruit and vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers. Then he got into more exotic fruit like cherry trees, lemon trees, and lychee fruit. It became a bit of a scientific study. I mean, when you’re in university, you expect to see red solo cups all around the house, but you don’t expect to see those cups filled with dirt and seeds,” Fida says.

But with Canada being Canada, it was too cold to grow those exotic fruits, so they thought they could buy a grow locker, an enclosed system for growing plants indoors. These lockers don’t come cheap, especially on a university student’s budget. Since Joe was an engineering student, he decided to build his own.

Things were going along okay until he came across the inefficiency with the carbon filter. “It was big, it was heavy, and it had to be replaced every couple of months, and there was this big process to change it,” says Fida. Not sure how to fix this, Joe reached out to the experts he knew—some friends who were growing cannabis.

They told him that these carbon filters were the only option at that time. Joe thought that he could fix that as well. “That’s really where the idea that founded Blade Air came from,” says Fida.

A replaceable carbon filter would turn a process with almost 100 percent waste into one that would reclaim and recycle virtually everything.

“Joe focused on improving efficiencies and reducing waste. And he came to me and said, ‘Do you think this is viable? Will you help me look into this?’” says Fida.

From there, Giancarlo Sessa was included to help get the business up and running, and together they raised about $85,000 while still in university.

All of this ingenuity and resourcefulness landed the trio on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list. “You focus on the triple bottom line: your people, your planning and your profits. Caring about the environment is a huge thing and making profits while you’re finding ways to drive costs down and to create zero waste was what it was always all about,” says Sessa, now CSO of the company.

Many may not know this, but the air filtration and purification industry has been around for a long time, and many of the biggest players in the market have been there for 50 to 100 years. However, new technologies and new people are beginning to disrupt the space and change how air filters are designed and incorporated into buildings.

For example, Blade Air uses UVC energy and electrostatic polarized filters to improve air quality. The systems use less power and last longer than other filters in the market, making sustainability and cost-savings huge wins for customers.

One of Blade Air’s more prominent projects was the Distillery District in Toronto, which is a collection of historic warehouses dating back to the early 1800s, once used for whiskey production, and now home to trendy shops, residences, and offices.

In 2021, the district’s management was looking to improve the indoor air quality of the buildings. One of the significant differentiators for Blade Air was that it wasn’t focused on just one technology. And as they walked through the buildings, they worked out what kind of long-term installation would help improve air quality while also addressing the sustainability needs.

“They were looking at 18 to 24 months because they were trying to bring people back and they couldn’t afford to wait,” Sessa says of the urgency to provide a healthy environment after pandemic restrictions were lifted.

The Distillery District had already transitioned to MERV 13 filters, but the system was not designed to handle the pressure differential because of the increase in static pressure that those filters produce, so they just were not getting the airflow performance that they wanted. It became very apparent quickly that Blade Air’s electrostatic filter was going to be the best solution.

The electrostatic filter uses active polarization fields that capture micro particulates that standard filters would let pass through. And, not only could it outperform a HEPA filter in the viral range, but it also has incredibly low static pressure. That way, they could alleviate the pressure on the system while improving indoor air quality. From there, they tested the system in the buildings to see the difference.

“When we talk about indoor air quality in the context of mitigating the risk to people’s health, we’re actually talking about a particulate matter from the 0.007 range up to about 0.5 microns, which is where airborne pathogens, bacteria, viruses, and microbes live,” says Sessa. And because standard sensor packages don’t have measurements on such a small scale, Blade Air went to a third-party lab to take live culture samples.

The results showed that adding the electrostatic helped improve the bacteria capture rate by nearly 50 percent. Ultimately, they were able to maintain the system airflow, and improve the air quality by two and a quarter times, while reducing the motor consumption by 70 percent.

This story illustrates what the trio is bringing to the industry: transformative systems and a willingness to partner with customers to identify needs and deliver beyond expectations.

“We feel we are changing something that’s been stagnant for so long. Our motivation behind this innovation was not only for this industry but for many industries—bringing a sustainable aspect to filtration, which nobody else was doing,” Sessa explains.

Indoor air quality has been at front and center since the pandemic. People today are more concerned about the transmission of viruses and keeping safe than they once were. But with all that attention, there are also a lot of claims out there about what filtration can do that may need some purifying as well.

“Technology has come into the market that people do not necessarily understand and companies are not educating consumers,” says Fida, adding there are numerous instances of misrepresenting what technology can do.

Because of this, Blade Air has made a concerted effort to be thought leaders in filtration, educating people on what filters can and cannot do. “What’s driving us is to be seen as the people who you can trust and that any information you find on our website is accurate and true.”

And being young and relatively new in a long-standing industry, they’ve also got advice for other young entrepreneurs who are breaking into an established sector. As Sessa puts it: “Just know what you’re doing, have faith in what you’re doing, be confident and push!”

The post Making Clean Air a Priority<p class="company">Blade Air</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

After living in an ashram for eight years, Sands moved to the Island of Maui, where he was inspired to build a community house out of bamboo, the greenest building material. With help from his brother and friends, the labor of love was completed.

The success of this work soon led to the creation of Bamboo Living, the world’s leading creator of custom homes made with time-tested bamboo building materials with modern design and fabrication techniques. “I’ve been doing this since 1995,” says Sands, who started with round pole houses, “and I’m still doing this.”

Focus on climate change
To date, Sands and his team at Bamboo Living have been responsible for the design and construction of about 400 bamboo homes worldwide. The company’s scope of work includes residential properties, outdoor pavilions, schools, remote island resorts, sheds, garages, and more.

As the leader behind the world’s only internationally certified, permit-ready bamboo homes and building business, Sands takes pride in his work and wears multiple hats. He’s not only Bamboo Living’s co-founder / chief architect but is also the founder, chief design officer, and director of Rizome.

Founded a decade ago, Rizome—a name inspired by rhizome, the underground horizontal stem of certain plants producing roots and shoots that develop into new plants — is a leading supplier of sustainable bamboo panels, veneers, and laminated veneer and laminated strand lumber, and other products.

As calls for reducing carbon emissions increase worldwide, so does the demand for sustainable alternatives for everything from basic household items to construction materials. Long used to make chopsticks, bamboo is now a popular substitute for single-use plastic utensils like forks and knives (not accepted by many municipal recycling programs) because bamboo is lightweight, durable, and eco-friendly.

With its anti-bacterial properties, moisture resistance, and natural beauty, bamboo is finding its way into kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms, and bedrooms as decorative bowls, cleaning brushes, and bed linens.

One of the most widely used plants on earth, bamboo has many applications. Split and flattened culms (stalks) are made into flooring. Interwoven bamboo is used to make small and large items alike, such as hats, mats, and baskets; on a larger scale, it is used for rafts, bridges, scaffolding, and houses.

Today, bamboo ticks many boxes. As a building material, bamboo’s strength rivals that of wood and even concrete. It’s lightweight and durable, owing to its strong cellulose and lignin, which—although weaker than cellulose—together make for a perfect pairing.

Owing to its aesthetics and durability, bamboo is fast becoming a popular alternative to hardwood floorings such as oak, walnut, and mahogany. Hardwood trees can only be cut down once every 20 years; bamboo grows up to three feet per day and can be harvested yearly, making it far more sustainable.

The energy required to produce bamboo is about half of that needed for wood. And compared to steel, which must undergo multiple energy-consuming processes from smelting to casting and tempering before it is usable, the cost of bamboo production is far less.

Superior sustainability
Last year, Rhizome was selected as a finalist for the Carbon Removal XPRIZE Milestone Award.

According to a statement on the website of Climate Impact Partners, which is dedicated to delivering one billion tons of CO₂ reductions by 2030, “The Musk Foundation has chosen the proposed expansion of the Rizome Bamboo Project in the Philippines as one of the top 60 global solutions for carbon removal.” The $50 million Grand Prize will be announced on Earth Day 2025.

This recognition is in line with Climate Impact Partners and its leading role in carbon finance for projects transforming the world’s economy, along with improving health, and livelihoods and restoring the Earth.

“Our mission setting up Rizome was to develop bamboo into a primary global construction material, and sequester gigatons of CO₂ in the process,” says Sands, who hopes to see up to 10 percent of global emissions being addressed by bamboo plants, bamboo building materials, and the avoidance of emissions by reducing the use of wood, steel, and concrete. “It’s quite an achievable goal—you just have to keep taking the next steps.”

To ensure bamboo harvesting is ethical and sustainable, Rizome lives by its tagline, “Don’t cut the trees, cut the grass.” And since bamboo (which encompasses over 115 genera and 1,400 species) is actually a giant grass, cutting it when harvested stimulates growth. Unlike trees that are cut down and don’t regenerate, bamboo plants can live up to 120 years, making bamboo farming a multi-generational income stream for farmers.

Rizome only harvests mature poles that are three to five years old for its products. Each plant puts out five to ten new poles per year, and Rizome is seeing outstanding success with higher numbers.

Although bamboo will reach pole heights of 60 to 100 feet in just a few months, they must be at least three to five years old to be structurally mature and aren’t harvested if they are less than five inches (12.7 cm) in diameter. When poles come into the factory for processing, they weigh about 220 pounds (99.7 kg) each, with the branches and upper section already removed.

By using bamboo, Sands says the company is working toward reducing global emissions by 10 percent through rapid, replicable growth. “Today, we’re cultivating giant bamboo in subtropical Florida and the Philippines and building the world’s most reliable bamboo supply chain,” says the company on its website. “Because now, more than ever, the world needs the wonders of bamboo.”

Growing up in Florida, Sands is intimately familiar with the state and its crops and growing conditions. Although known worldwide for its citrus industry, the approximate 900,000 acres once dedicated to citrus has dropped to some 400,000 acres because of invasive disease.

Florida’s farmers are looking at alternative crops, among them bamboo. Working with an agricultural partner, Rizome is conducting tests in the state and looking to scale up in South Florida for its engineered bamboo material.

“We are planting in Florida, and we are working on the funding for the production facility there,” he says. “I hope that we will be up and running there by the end of the year. That line is going to get added this summer in the Philippines.”

Some products include laminated building materials, with expansion to strand-woven. A crushed, densified bamboo product used in some bamboo flooring, strand-woven can be used for siding or outdoor decking.

The future of bamboo
Much of Bamboo Living and Rizome’s business comes through its website, word-of-mouth referrals, and its company’s presence in exhibitions like the recent Art Fair Philippines.

Held in February, the event was attended by more than 30,000 people including top architects, and was picked up by CNN Philippines. It was the company’s first appearance at the Fair, which saw architect Andy Locsin using the company’s bamboo materials in his design. “It was really neat—flowing and very fluid,” says Sands. “The panels we made could be curved, and ended up being beautiful.”

Experiencing increasing demand for bamboo, Sands says Rizome—which is looking for investment—is scaling up its business to meet customer needs.

“We thought it was going to be all export because we have clients in the United States that are interested in the material,” he says, “but the demand has been so strong here in the Philippines that we’ve got to significantly expand our production capacity to have enough material to export.

“And Bamboo Living is as busy as it’s ever been. We’ve got about 100 projects in the queue, so we’re expanding production there as well. “Our favorite project is always the next one,” he says.

In May, Sands will conduct part of a presentation with renowned construction engineering company Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) at the National Structures Conference, discussing the need for more sustainable materials in building. “Wood, steel, and concrete are responsible for about 25 percent of global emissions, so we need to get that addressed, and bamboo is an incredible tool.”

The post The Greenest Building Material is Growing Fast<p class="company">Bamboo Living / Rizome</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.