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Posts by Alan Butler

Mar 19

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Green Roof gets a Haircut!

It was a beautiful sunny day, the last day of winter officially, and the perfect time to give our green test roof a spring haircut. Jamie and I got out the weedeater and a rake and went at it Friday at noon. Only one sprinkler head met its demise for the cause. The clippings went out to Kenwood where they were properly composted. Jaime and I got our eco-credits for the week and the roof got its first hearty drink from the irrigation system.  With only 4″ of soil the roof had dried out considerably in our short burst of warm weather. Our plan for the spring is perhaps to raise some healthy veggies on the roof garden to enhance our Wine Wednesdays. Stay tuned!
aB

Green Roof Maintenance Crew at Work. Note John Deere T-Shirt.

Feb 6

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Napa LLRC and Great Skies

View of the NVC LLRC from the plaza February 5, 2010

On Friday February 5, Jeff and I were on our way back from investigating the Dixon Public Library and stopped by the Napa Valley College Library site. It  was one of those lucky breaks in the weather where the light and clouds were just perfect, a day that professional photographers wait eagerly for.  The project is really coming along on the exterior. The plaza paving is  going in and the exterior features are becoming more evident. A crew was just starting the Rheinzinc paneling on the east side, most of the fascia panels are in and “The Wall” with its ochre colored Venetian plaster is spectacular. The plaza is going to be a great civic  space. In the large view  you can see one of two  raised outdoor stages that will really help activate the plaza and make it a great venue for a variety of  activities. Views out from the cafe  and  the plaza really make the space even more dramatic. There are some really great views from the interior including the gallery walkway leading up  to the second floor  that you can see at  the left side of the  larger view. From the floating classroom in the  middle  of the  main library floor there is a panoramic view  out through the clerestory windows  to  the  west and the Napa River floodplain.
I  look forward to the  completion with eager anticipation.
aB

The Wall

Feb 1

2 Comments

Aqua

I ran across an article in the New Yorker this weekend. It is by architectural critic Paul Goldberger about the new Aqua Building in Chicago by Studio Gang. The article is particularly interesting because not only did the design emerge as unique for a tall building, but the form also dispersed winds so that mass dampers were not required. Form and Function in an interesting harmony that we’d all like to achieve. Check out the article: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/skyline/2010/02/01/100201crsk_skyline_goldberger and the Studio Gang website:  http://www.studiogang.net/projects_e1.htm

aB

Jan 22

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Pick Your Desk

Though this is actually the first floor of the ATT Building, all the floors look pretty much alike at this point. Imagine with windows to the north that you could see this view of courthouse square. Don & I were just in the building with Bill Carle and Frank Kasimov from the City. We were looking for a leak in the basement that was not evident. The Museum on the Square building goes before the Redevelopment Agency Board next Monday the 25th and the schedule in the Agenda has us starting drawings the 26th! The schedule further calls for final approvals of the project by late May of this year. Things are moving forward with great rapidity. We’ll keep you informed as both the building design and our TI progress.
aB

Interior of the ATT Building

Current Interior of the ATT Building

Courthouse Square from the roof of the Museum on the Square Building

Dec 21

CHICAGO-Three Buildings

Tuesday at noon I’ll be presenting three buildings I visited in Chicago in early November. The New Modern Wing of the Chicago Art Institute is Renzo Piano’s latest work in the US. The daylighting of the galleries is spectacular. I also visited the Klarchek Information Commons at Loyola University of Chicago. This three story commons sits at the edge of Lake Michigan and uses a very sophisticated natural ventilation system. The Spertus Institute for Jewish Studies is the newest landmark on Michigan Avenue. The faceted  glass facade encloses gallery and library spaces within a daylit lobby. The detailing of this  building is very nice. Hope to see you at noon on Tuesday.–Alan

Nov 6

Healthcare Design 09 Conference

Jason, Stephen and I just returned from the Healthcare Design Conference in Orlando on Wednesday. We had a busy weekend touring hospitals in the Orlando/Daytona area and went on to two days of meetings early in the week. The conference is growing. This year there were 2,600 attendees. Some observations:
• The Florida hospitals we saw were all very nice with a high level of amenity and very focused on patient centered care. These hospitals cost about half what we experience in California. The hospitals are highly competitive and amenity is a big factor in consumer choice.
• At the same time there were a number of Evidence Based Design initiatives in the hospitals there was a noticeable lack of sustainable design. The building exteriors (throughout Florida) had no external shading or orientation specific response. The interiors and systems had very little apparent concern for energy conservation or sustainable materials. While one architect from a firm’s New York office wrote a prominent book on sustainable healthcare architecture and spoke at the conference on those topics, her colleagues could not speak to any of those sorts of initiatives in their Florida projects.
• I went to some very good roundtables and education sessions. The access to the people leading the charge and publishing on Evidence Based Design was just great. I found the smaller roundtables to be most engaging.
• There were two distinct groups at the conference, the researchers and the implementers. The researchers were from the largest firms, hospitals and universities. The implementers were primarily architects and those administering hospitals and healthcare facilities. The researchers spent more of their time talking about methodology and process while the implementers were hungry for ideas that they could design into facilities.
We have some new resources:
• Evidence Based Design for Multiple Building Types; EBD moves beyond healthcare, just a little
• Research Laboratories: a logical extension of the healthcare world
• Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture
• HERD: Health Environments Research and Design, we now subscribe to this journal
These books and journals will reside outside my office on the counter or in the Healthcare Studio. Some good books on Sustainable Healthcare Architecture and the Visual Resource for Evidence Based Design. Alan says “check them out”
ConferenceEDORGinzburg Ext

Oct 29

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On The Road with Alan- The Future & Farewell Chicago

Today was the Futures Conference in Chicago. About 55 firm leaders from architecture, engineering and construction were gathered by the consulting firm FMI/AMI. It was an unusual opportunity to meet and speak with the leaders of some of the leading firms in the US. The thrust of the conference was that no one can predict the future, but that if you study probable scenarios you will be better prepared to deal with the multiplicity of futures that might arise. The futures that were developed into scenarios were:
• The Perfect World
• Struggle for Stability
• Building Walls
• Controlled Environment
Almost all agreed that the Struggle for Stability was the most like our current reality though there were elements of all the scenarios in what we are currently dealing with and what we might have to deal with in the future.
The keynote speaker was Watt Wacker (yes that’s for real and he is not a PG&E spokesman for high efficiency light bulbs). In the midst of mostly suits and ties he was the guy with the frizzy blonde fright doo, shorts and Teva sandals. He was really quite good. Between high-level corporate futurists gigs he does things like cook for a hunting pack outfit in Montana and drives an airport shuttle for Avis, just so he can look at the world from a variety of perspectives. When I get a little time, I’ll boil down the essence of the day. All in all it confirmed that we are generally doing the right things and that felt good.
This is it for Chicago. Tomorrow is Orlando and the Health Design Conference. Whew!
aB
FuturesFarewell Chicago

Oct 28

On the Road with Alan-A Walk Through Chicago

Out in Chicago for my last afternoon of walking around downtown Chicago, I encountered some impressively varied architecture. The South Loop area has buildings from the late nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth that are impressive in their grandeur. Walking through the lobby of the Manadanock Building (the tallest structural masonry building in existence I believe) is like walking into an Edward Hopper painting, nothing has changed in a hundred years except the dress. Blocks away I encountered the new Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies. Its folded curtain wall will bring back images from the Monterey Design Conference where the facades resemble drapery. The interior (including a beautiful small library) is beautifully rendered. After sunset I walked back to my hotel on the Miracle Mile, that section of Michigan Avenue that really has the bustle and the lights of a truly great city.Spertus LobbySpertus Stair Detail
Chicago Night SkylineSpertus Ext

Oct 28

On the Road with Alan-Greater Chicago Food Depository

On Wednesday morning I took a tour of the Greater Chicago Food Depository. This food bank is the largest in the country and distributes nearly sixty million pounds of food a year to 600 kitchens and food pantries in the Chicago area. Every time I’m near an established food bank in another region I try to get a tour, looking forward to the Redwood Empire Food Bank’s eventual expansion. The most remarkable thing about this facility is the sheer scale of the operation. The sorting operations were remarkably similar to the automated book sorting systems that I saw at the Seattle Public Library a couple of years ago. Hopefully the Redwood Empire Food Bank’s fund drive is successful as they desperately need a larger facility to handle the volume and demand that is out there.Food Bank ExteriorFood Bank Interior

Oct 27

On the Road with Alan-The Modern Wing

Later today I spent some time at the new Modern Wing of the Chicago Art Institute, This is Renzo Piano’s latest American project. It is dramatic and shows the art to its best advantage while being somewhat understated if something this big can be understated. The detailing is gorgeous and the way the building deals with natural daylight is nothing short of phenomenal. On top of this it has one of the best art collections in the country. Note the painting of me having lunch in the diner. Tomorrow is the Chicago Food Bank. Iv’e been doing lots of walking and taken hundreds of pictures. I’ll have a lot to share when I get back.

aB

MW-Long ViewMW-Window SculptureNighthawks

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