New SFPUC Headquarters Tour Features LEED Platinum Features

The new SFPUC Headquarters, located on 525 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco, Calif., is slated to be the most sustainable building of its kind. Originally conceived to achieve LEED Silver status, the new 277,000-square-foot, 13-story building is expected to surpass LEED Platinum certification. To celebrate this achievement and demonstrate what can really be possible on this scale, KMD Architects, the Urban Land Institute, and the San Francisco Department of Public Works hosted a tour of the ultra-sustainable project.

Led by PUC Project Director, Shelby Campbell, SFDPW Senior Project Manager, Brook Mabrahtu, and KMD Principal, David Hobstetter, tour participants learned about the many features that maximize environmental sustainability including:

• Vertical wind turbines and solar panels to assist in meeting the building’s energy demand
• A Living Machine to facilitate black and grey water treatment. This reclamation measure will satisfy 100% of the water demand needed to operate the building’s low flow toilets and urinals
• Strategic floor plan, glass exterior and light shelves to redirect daylight to the building’s core, maximizing the use of natural light
• Raised floors to facilitate natural ventilation, enhancing indoor air quality

“Number one, the PUC has a mission of pushing the envelope in green technology,” says KMD Principal, David Hobstetter. “What will make the PUC the most sustainable urban building in the United States is the combination of energy production on the building itself, through the use of wind turbines and solar panels, combined with a super efficient envelope.”

In addition to the many sustainable features, visitors and employees will be able to monitor the building’s environmental performance on a digital screen, located in the lobby, that will show the energy performance of the building in real-time. What’s more, the digital screen will showcase the PUC’s history, mission and feature the art and educational components of the facility.

The PUC building on 525 Golden Gate Avenue, is scheduled to be completed in summer 2012. Learn more about this exciting project.

Bertschi: What it Takes to Make it Green

Congratulations to the Bertschi Living Science Building team on winning the What Makes It Green (WMIG) award from the AIA Seattle Committee on the Environment (COTE). Out of 27 projects, the Bertschi School was one of four winners to take home the award for one of the best green projects in the Northwest  and Pacific region. The competition recognizes and celebrates projects that are committed to meeting 2030 Challenge and demonstrate the highest accomplishments in environmentally sustainable design.

“It’s the first Living Building 2.0 project in the world,” said KMD Architects Associate, Stacy Smedley. “Some of the most inspiring parts for us was getting the kids involved in the design process, and most of their ideas had to do with water.”

The Bertschi School Living Science Building, located in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, is designed to be a learning tool for the students, impacting the way we interact in the world for generations to come. The teaching elements focus on:

• All sustainable features, including monitoring equipment, are accessible and visible to students
• The runnel is covered by removable glass tiles for educational water testing
• Garden plants enhance the study of botany and anthropology and may be harvested for art projects
• The composting toilet requires very little water and is not connected to the city sewer system

New PUC Building to be Greenest in US

Public Utilities Commission Building, 525 Golden Gate, San Francisco, CA, Vertical exterior view showing architectural team: (Left to right: David Hobstetter (KMD), Michael Rossetto (KMD), Kelly Galloway (KMD), Matt Rossie (Webcor Builders)

The San Francisco Public Utilities Building, located on 525 Golden Gate Ave., is planned and designed to be one of the greenest, most sustainable urban office buildings in the United States. Officially scheduled for opening in June of 2012, a few of the sustainable features of this building include:

• Creative floor plan to maximize exterior views and natural light
• Nighttime ventilation system to flush excess heat from the building
• Integrated light shelves to bounce daylight deep into the floor plan
• Wind turbines on roof and photovoltaic panels for energy generation
• Onsite water recycling plant and grey water reuse system

Check out this video to learn more

University of Texas-El Paso Opens New Chemistry and Computer Science Building

The University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP) recently opened their doors to a new, 15,000-square-foot,  interdisciplinary  teaching and research building for the chemistry and computational science department. The facility is designed to promote interaction between the teaching and research departments and features large teaching labs for both departments as well as offices for the Dean of the College of Science, departmental chairs, faculty and graduate students.

Serving as planning and design architect, KMD Architects collaborated closely with the office of the Campus Architects and the office of the President to further the general master plan. Playing off UTEP’s roots in the Himalaya Mountains dating back to 1913, the exterior is designed with a Bhutanese flair, featuring the traditional fortress architecture common to the nation of Bhutan.

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KMD Celebrates El Paso Hospital Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

The El Paso Children's Hospital combines services for women and children into one, 11-story building with two distinct entrances and circulation systems

On Saturday, February 11, KMD Architects celebrated the official ribbon cutting ceremony for $120 million El Paso Children’s Hospital. Hospital CEO Lawrence Duncan had the honors of cutting the ribbon with the help of several children. Tours of the hospital were given to the ceremony’s participants, highlighting the rich interior healing environments. Designed within a small footprint, the hospital features 72 private rooms, a 50-bed baby intensive-care unit with recliners for recovering moms, and family lounges that are fully equipped with mini kitchens, washers and dryers, for families to use. In the spirit of fun and playfulness, the interiors were designed with children in mind, allowing for lots of light to fill pastel-colored rooms and gleam on bright yellow and blue tiled floors. The architectural styles, colors, materials and landscaping will be the flagship for the larger medical centers, research laboratories, manufacturing facilities, education centers, health agencies and departments serving the entire community to be relocated in the future.

Recent Groundbreaking of Pier 27 Ushers in Construction Phase of Landmark Project

David Hobstetter (KMD), Monique Moyer (Port of SF Executive Director), and Dan Wheeler (Manager at Turner Construction) at Pier 27 Groundbreaking Ceremony on Jan. 31, 2012

The official groundbreaking on the long-awaited Port of San Francisco’s James R. Herman Cruise Terminal at Pier 27 marked a pivotal moment in the project designed by the KMD Architects/Pfau Long joint venture. With the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ acceptance of the EIR, the groundbreaking ushers in the construction phase of the new terminal that will act as headquarters for the 34^th America’s Cup, and be seen as a world-class gateway to San Francisco for cruise passengers.

In a perfect marriage between the city’s and the 34^thAmerica’s Cup event needs, the 88,000 square-foot, two-story facility, slated to achieve LEED Silver certification, is a salute to San Francisco’s robust shipping history, and a nod to its prominent position as a world-class city.

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Rob Swartz Joins KMD Architects to Lead Corporate Practice

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – KMD Architects is pleased to announce its recent hire of Rob Swartz, who has joined the firm as the Principal and Market Sector Leader for Corporate Architecture.

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Rooms With a View: San Diego County Women’s Detention Facility

Correctional News

Slowly but surely, criminal justice science is undergoing a shift in modern America. While it’s long been acknowledged that reform is the optimal outcome of incarceration, this principle has yet to be uniformly recognized in the physical forms of adult detention facilities.

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A Model for Female Correctional Design

Correctional News

The $28 million, 99,000-square-foot Naval Consolidated Brig addition to NAVFAC’s (Naval Facilities Engineering Command) existing confinement complex at the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, Calif., is special. Not just because the expanded complex serves as the Navy’s confinement facility for the entire Southwest or because it will absorb prisoners from other NAVFAC correctional facilities scheduled for closure, but because it is a model for female correctional design and rehabilitation.

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Oregon State Hospital Replacement Project Timeline

February 2006: KMD Architects released its Oregon State Hospital Master Plan Phase II report recommending new state-operated hospitals as part of a strengthened statewide mental health system. KMD’s project experience includes an unusually diverse resume of mental health and medical facilities within secure environments.

Link to project’s timeline