Highlights
ASHRAE Golden Gate Chapter
Carrie Brown was recently featured in the ASHRAE Golden Gate Chapter Stars of Our Community for January 2025. Some of her ASHRAE roles include Society Director-at-Large (2024-2027) and a member of the Center of Excellence for Building Decarbonization.
Carrie will also be catching up with folks at the ASHRAE Winter Conference next week.
Read the full feature here: https://ggashrae.org/blog/MemberSpotlight_Carrie_B.
ASHRAE Standards Committee
Rhy Davis met with other members of the ASHRAE Standard 242p (Standard Method for Calculation of Building Operational Greenhouse Gas Emissions) committee this month in Golden, Colorado, to continue developing unified language and methods for calculating GHG emissions in buildings.
Recent Project Work
NY Climate Impact Assessments - Buildings Chapter
The New York State Climate Impacts Assessment has officially been published in the New York Academy of Sciences. Carrie co-chaired the working group that developed the Buildings Chapter, which adds a complete section dedicated to the built environment for the first time. The buildings chapter can be found at: https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.15200.
Project information is also available through the website: https://nysclimateimpacts.org/.
Architecture at Zero 2024 - Awards Announced
Image credit: Albert C, FG Tade Latin, Margie O'Driscoll, John Gollop, and Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
The Architecture at Zero 2024 Competition submission awards were announced on January 30th during a public virtual awards ceremony. Project sponsors and the site partner discussed the impact of this year’s competition, which saw a record number of submissions. The Jury were also present and provided comments on the winning designs. Submissions underwent an extensive review process that included a technical review and a deliberation from an architectural jury. Anna LaRue and Nate Heckman were on the Technical Review committee. The Architecture Jury members included: Lance Collins, AIA; Allison Williams, FAIA; and Paul Torcellini, PhD.
The awards and winning teams are listed below and more information can be found at Architecture at Zero’s 2024 Recipients page. Congratulations to the winners and great work to the teams who participated and helped advance decarbonization, equity, and resilience in the first AAZ Competition set in Southern California!
AWARDED PROJECTS
High School Students
SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD - Green STEAM Team, Oaks Christian School, Westlake Village, CA
College / University Students
MERIT AWARD - The Courtyards, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, Pomona, CA
CITATION AWARD - Little Farms, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, Pomona, CA
SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD - EL BARRIO National School of Architecture (ENA), Agadir, Morocco
Professionals
HONOR AWARD, Agualta STEAM Engine, Design Draw Build Inc, Oakland, CA
MERIT AWARD - Link +, McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture, Columbia, SC
MERIT AWARD - Middle School for Fun Innovation and Technological Sustainability, Adamakis Architects & Associates, Volos, Greece
SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD - Griffith STEAM construyendo un lugar para todos, Arquitetura Bruna Campos – Independent Consultants, São José, Brazil
Conferences & Presentations
ESIG webinar
Rhys has been working on the Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG) Building Electrification Task Force over the past year. Last October, ESIG hosted a webinar “Grid Planning for Building Electrification.” The webinar discussed the report created by the Task Force. It highlighted the four key priorities necessary for successfully incorporating building electrification into grid planning. It identified areas needing enhancement, such as distribution planning, forecasting, energy efficiency, and opportunities for integrating planning processes.
A recording of the webinar can be found at: https://www.esig.energy/event/webinar-grid-planning-for-building-electrification/.
UC Berkeley - Center for the Built Environment
Carrie returned to the UC Berkeley Center for the Built Environment to present “The Role of Weather Data in Resilient Design” for the UC Berkeley WeLL Seminar. The presentation covered the impact of switching from existing TMY datasets to more recent or future-looking datasets, the variation in available resiliency strategies, and challenges to switching to new formats.
Mentoring & Teaching
NBI NextGen Program
Anna LaRue is continuing for her third year as a mentor in the New Building’s Institute NextGen program. The Next Gen program is a professional development initiative for students designed to cultivate the future generation of diverse leaders in the building industry. Throughout the program, participants collaborate, engage in, and benefit from activities including resume enhancement, interview preparation, mentorship, sponsored conference attendance, and networking.
Architecture Environmental Systems Teaching
Nate Heckman is continuing as an adjunct instructor at the University at Buffalo. Last fall, he taught Environmental Systems 1, a course that introduces students to various environmental topics, including site, light, and acoustics. In the first half of the course, students learn how factors such as climate, topography, and site influence building design and how architects integrate these larger systems into their designs. The second half focuses on daylighting, electric lighting systems, and acoustics. Throughout the semester, students are encouraged to consider these concepts and incorporate them into their architectural design studio projects.
This spring, Nate is co-teaching Environmental Systems 3 with Laura Lubniewski, a Clinical Assistant Professor. This graduate-level course introduces building performance simulation and energy modeling to graduate architecture students. The first half of the course involves learning BEopt through various lab activities. Students interpret results and understand key metrics to enhance their literacy around building performance. In the second half, students work in groups to model and assess an existing home to identify energy conservation measures. They also consider constructability and design decisions necessary to achieve energy reductions.