Author: TLCD Architecture

North Bay Biz Readers Name TLCD Architecture Best Architectural Firm in Northbay

The setting was the Santa Rosa Golf & Country Club and the event the was the 22nd annual “Northbay’s BEST” awards party hosted by NorthBay Biz Magazine.

TLCD Architecture was thrilled to be recognized by readers as the “Best Architectural Firm” in the business services category. Don Tomasi, Mark Adams, John Dybczak and Marina Starkey attended and enjoyed networking with business professionals from around the North Bay and tasting the incredible food and wine offerings.

The full page firm profile in the Awards issue showcased the diversified work TLCD is doing throughout Northern California, including Museum on the Square which will house the Sonoma County Museum and TLCD’s new office.

TLCD Leads Tour of Santa Rosa Utilities Facility

TLCD Architecture was joined by Winzler & Kelly, and Quadriga Landscape Architecture in hosting the local IFMA Chapter on a Sustainable Facilities Design Tour. IFMA (International Facility Management Association) members were invited to a presentation and site visit May 18 at the City of Santa Rosa West College Utilities Facility Offices.  Key presenters included Mark Adams, Suzanne Nagorka, Dan Reiter, and Bill Mastic. Around 30 people representing facility management groups and associated businesses were “wowed” by the impressive training room, crew rooms, and shops. The building is also designed to function as the City’s Emergency Operations headquarters. The tour provided a great opportunity for other facilities managers to talk about trends in facility design and some of the challenges and successes on this great project.

TLCD Principal Mark Adams leads the tour group.

TLCD Principal Mark Adams leads the tour group.

TLCD sponsors the Sustainable Enterprise Conference

The Sustainable Enterprise Conference was one of the better Friday the 13th events in recent memory. In the first year of sponsoring this event, and with a turnout of over 400 attendees, we had a wonderful opportunity to share ideas on nurturing our planet and our communities. We got to chat with a diverse cross-section of business owners, educators, government officials, entrepreneurs, students, and environmental advocates.

Topics ranging from economic drivers, transportation, green energy, sustainable agriculture, and community education were presented with insight and enthusiasm. The realities of the environmental challenges facing us were paired with a myriad of innovative solutions currently in use and those that will inspire us in the future. Although the topics were diverse, one recurring theme that presented itself was the need to constantly re-examine our assumptions rather than simply continue along business as usual.

TLCD’s booth highlighted 2 recently completed local projects – the DeTurk Round Barn and the City of Santa Rosa’s Utilities Facility. Both projects are great examples of TLCD’s integration of sustainability features which are a fundamental part of our design process on every project. Recently published white papers on High-Performance Mechanical Systems, Evidence-based Design, and Displacement Ventilation were also displayed. We also had fun encouraging participation in our (free) raffle for a gift certificate box of organic produce.

TLCD Architecture Joins Sonoma County Best Program

TLCD Architecture has joined Sonoma County BEST, Building Economic Success Together, which is a five-year strategic plan for job creation and prosperity to directly address our economic challenges. TLCD Architecture, along with the other BEST investors,  form a collaborative partnership between the private and public sectors in Sonoma County to collectively work together to create jobs and restart the economic engine in Sonoma County. This is an exciting opportunity for us to be an active participant in the effort to reinvigorate our community.

It’s Alive! The Redwood Empire Revit Users Group returns

AXIA Architects has been kind enough to assist in the restart of the RERUG, and is hosting the next meeting on Wednesday, May 18th.  This meeting will feature Bob Palioca & David Haynes of Ideate Inc., who will be presenting on the current state of Autodesk Building software. Please see link below for more information and to register for the event.

http://ideateinc.com/trng_emails/red_revit_ug_invite.html

TLCD Architecture and the Redwood Empire Food Bank Rock the Human Race!

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Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s Human Race. TLCD had 11 runners and 9 volunteers come out on a beautiful spring morning for this incredible community fundraiser! TLCD Architecture teamed with The Redwood Empire Food Bank at this event and together raised over $3300 for the food bank. If you spotted neon orange shirts, chances are it was either the human caterpillar chain formed by the REFB team, TLCD’s 3k and 10k runners, the team at Newanga & Hoen handing out water, or the face-painters we had at the Marketplace booth. This event really captures the essence of Sonoma County and the spirit of giving… and it’s a really good time!

TLCD’s Green Week

Earth Week at TLCD Architecture

Thanks to everyone who participated in TLCD’s first annual Earth Week celebration. Just to recap… we started with a week-long challenge to walk or ride your bike to work, take the stairs and generally get up and moving. Tuesday Bridgett demonstrated how to make earth friendly cleaning and personal care products at a great Lunch-n-Learn. Wednesday was a full day with a crew working on our green roof deck to refurbish our old redwood furniture and clean up the planters. Wednesday evening our Wine Wednesday topic was CSA baskets (Community Supported Agriculture) and the staff enjoyed delicious organic fruits and nuts. Dayna lead a team of picker-uppers to walk the Santa Rosa Creek and collect trash on Thursday. On Friday or “Earth Day” we raffled-off prizes to those who took up the walk, run, exercise challenge and ended the week with a hike in Annadel State Park… which was in full glory with wildflowers.

Many thanks to the Partners for letting us plan an entire week of activities and to all of you who worked so hard to make this happen!

Deck Love

Ready for summer
TLCD's newly refurbished green-roof deck.

Last week in honor of Earth Day a few of us (Avian, Bridgett, Bill, Julie, Marina, Stephen, Jack and myself) got together to give our green-roof deck a bit of love. We gathered up the deck furniture, got out the sanders and went to work. If you heard something last Wednesday at lunch that sounded like 10,000 angry hornets descending on TLCD, that was us. While some of us sanded off years of sun-baked slivers, others cleaned out the detritus that had accumulated on the green-roofs. In addition to a general clean, we decided to add some new plants to the roof. What was once a green-roof is now an eatable green-roof! Amongst the native grasses and sedums you will now find strawberries, lettuce, basil and tomatoes. It’s an experiment to find out what can be grown on a living roof. Thanks to all who joined in and helped. Now get out there and enjoy a nice break or lunch on the deck.

Earth Week Prince Memorial Creek Clean-up Day

Super Clean Up Crew

Clean-up crew Power!
With determination and bravery several staff members joined forces to eradicate the creek area of trash.
We are happy to report, this round bagged a lot less trash than our previous event.
Many thanks to those who participated. Every little bit helps.
Happy Earth Week to all.

Mother Nature thanks you.

Support our Local Farmers while eating healthy!

At Wine Wednesday last night, the office sampled a delicious box of organic fruit from a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) company.  The idea of the Wine Wednesday was to inform everyone of the advantages of buying organic produce while supporting local farmers.  Benefits include; eating ultra-fresh food with all the flavor and vitamin benefits, getting exposed to new vegetables you may have never tried and by getting your family members involved in the healthy eating as well.

Below is a list of the top 10 foods to eat organically.

    1. Strawberries
    2. Bell Peppers
    3. Spinach
    4. Cherries
    5. Peaches
    6. Mexican Cantaloupe
    7. Celery
    8. Apples
    9. Apricots
    10. Green Beans

TLCD’s Earth Week Kicks of With Natural Cleaning Products Demo

In celebration of Earth Day, the TLCD office has planned a week filled with educational demonstrations, office challenges, and activities focused on environmental awareness.

Today’s activities focused on making our own homemade cleaning materials and body care products from environmentally safe, non-toxic ingredients commonly found in our homes.  We made everything from Chamomile Lavender Shampoo and Olive Oil Wood Cleaner, to Natural Bug Repellent and Vinegar and Baking Soda Surface Cleaner. It was great to see so many of our TLCD participants mixing and matching different essential oils for their custom scented cleaners.  I was amazed by how many ways vinegar, lemon, and baking soda can be used for cleaning clothes, furniture, and surfaces!

The Coddingtown Whole Foods Market also provided a fun demonstration bag of eco friendly products and great literature on how to look for organic and eco friendly body care products.  All in all it was a very fun and informative session!

Stay tuned for days two recap of TLCD’s Earth Week Activities!


AIA IPD Case Studies

The AIA, AIA Minnesota & the School of Architecture – University of Minnesota released an interactive document last February featuring case studies on the use of Integrated Project Delivery with several different project types.  The document is interactive and has excellent structure & rigor.  See link below for AIA page with downloads:

http://www.aia.org/about/initiatives/AIAB087494

TLCD Beer Brewers Share Their Wares

This week’s Wine Wednesday was all about beer!

Our Own take on a British Amber Ale

For those unfamiliar with this longstanding tradition, every Wednesday at 5:00 the TLCD Architecture office gathers in our “Garage” conference room for snacks, refreshments, and a fun presentation.  The topics range from updates on current project designs, the latest trends in architecture, current events in our community, slides shows of recent vacations, and sharing of our favorite hobbies.

Kevin, Dean, and I prepare to sample our homebrews!

It was a big turn out for our beer brewing presentation.  What started as a fun experiment, has evolved into a full-fledged obsession and it was great to share my experience with everyone in the office.  Dean Snodgrass, a fellow home brewer, helped describe the process of fermentation and the role that each ingredient plays in flavoring a brew.  We also discussed a brief history of microbreweries (there are over 1,482 microbreweries across the United States, Sonoma County boasting some of the best!) and the burgeoning home brew culture.

During the presentation, participants sampled a number of our homemade brews including a Carmel Colored British Amber Ale, California Pale Ale, and Milk Stout. Kevin brought his own special dark stout and awesome pale ale to sample as well.

All in all it was an exciting talk and a fun way to share some outside interests with the rest of TLCD Architecture folks.

Sidney R Garfield Center Open House

Yesterday, Bill, Julie, Suzanne and myself were invited to tour the Sidney R. Garfield, The Health Care Innovations Center to see the mocked-up medical spaces and to test out the new Steelcase Furniture Standards.  The Garfield Innovation Center is a living laboratory where ideas are tested and solutions are developed in a hands-on, mocked-up clinical environment.  The environments we toured were, a Patient Room, Micro Clinic, Innovation Refresh Area, NICU, C-Section Room, Labor + Delivery Room and at the end we tested out the different furniture seating options provided by Steelcase.

Another important element that we viewed and experienced in the Micro Clinic was Kaiser branding tool, the Total Health Environments.  The Total Health Environments is about creating innovative, people and eco friendly environments that are less sterile than in the past and are cost effective.  This was demonstrated by the use of fresh paint colors, sustainable materials such as linoleum flooring, recycled tile, the use of modular nurse stations, energy efficient lighting and testing of different types of light fixtures.

Check out the pictures from the Garfield Center.

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DeTurk Round Barn – open for business!

St. Pattys Day was more than Corned Beef and Guiness this year. The DeTurk Round Barn, after a much needed restoration, was officially dedicated and opened for business. Under the care of The City of Santa Rosa, Recreation and Parks Department the barn went from a tired 120 year old building to a vibrant public space, ready for another 120 years of memories.

There were two events of interest on this day. A wonderful ceremony, complete with bagpipes, occured at the new dog park. A new memorial for “Maverick”, a K9 killed in the line of duty in 2000, was dedicated. With generous financial support from TLCD Architecture and the general contractor on the project, GCCI, a suitable plaque was unveiled, that will honor Maverick well into the future.

The second event was the ribbon cutting for the round barn. Approximatley 250 people attended, and were entertained with videos, drink and wonderful food from On Q Events and Catering. A really special part of this event was mingling with the guests and talking about the what it took to get to this point:

1. Community support and involvement, especially from the citizens that live near the barn in the West End Neighborhood and Historic District.

2. Understanding and cooperation from the varied departments within the City of Santa Rosa as the project was navigated through the approval process.

3. Wonderful programs, like the California Cultural and Historical Endowment , meant to save important architectural landmarks like the DeTurk Round Barn.

4. A collaborative atmosphere during the project between Design Team and contractor. A project like this, where so much is about maintaining the origianl character of the barn won’t be successful if the trades in the field aren’t seen as a big piece of the solution. From the custom stair elements, executed wonderfully by The Welding Shop, to the large amount of exposed conduit for electrical, placed in a craftman like manner by Lunardi Electric, to the reclaimed oak flooring installed by H.Y. Floor and Gameline Painting, Inc. this project is successful in large part by dedication of workers in the field. Contact GCCI for a list of all sub contractors on the project.

A fitting end on St. Patty’s Day: “May your home always be too small to hold your friends”

St. Patrick’s Day Feast

In a less traditional approach to St. Patrick’s Day, TLCD staff prepared colorful and healthy foods in a rainbow of colors. Green food items were actually “greens” from the earth and there was a delicious array of flavors and textures. From hand-dipped strawberries, homemade angel food cake and blueberry/pear tarts the desserts were even better!

 

Thanks to all our TLCD “foodies” who brought dishes in for today and have a happy and safe St. Patrick’s Day.

Second Annual TLCD Bowl-a-Rama!

Last Friday a group of TLCD folk and family tested their bowling skills during a friendly but spirited tournament.  Jay Jensen (Scott’s Dad) impressed us all as he walked away with the award for High Game (169) and High Individual Average.  Carl Servais captured the highly-coveted Most Strikes award. 

Dayna goes for one of her many spares

Other awards (and braggin’ rights) included:

Best Team Name: The Bowlinators

Most Likely to go Pro: Max Psadelakis (Nanette’s son)

Best Bowling Form: Alyssa Moore (Josh’s daughter)

Best Bowling Outfit: Scott Jensen (gotta love them shorts)

Most Creative Ball Toss: Kevin Teel (complete with face plant)

High Team Score: The Flintstones (Yabba Dabba Doooo!)

High Team Average: The Flintstones (Wilmaaaaaaaa)

It was a great change of pace from our work environment and big fun to hang out with family members we don’t get to see real often. Aside from a few sore thumbs and weekender aches, the group got through the workout to make it to the pizza round across the street at Mary’s Pizza Shack.

George Psadelakis (Nanette's hubby) shows the pro form
Serious team strategy sessions

Innovative Multi-Purpose Room Unveiled

Last evening our design for a new multi-purpose building at Yulupa School in Santa Rosa was presented to the Bennett Valley Union School District board. This building represents a unique approach to the design of multi-purpose buildings, and is part of a larger project that will reconfigure and transform the campus. Other key project features include 12 new classrooms, conversion of the former multi-purpose room into a library, and rooftop solar panels that will provide almost all of the school’s electricity.

The building is configured with a large sloped roof to accommodate as many solar panels as possible. The orientation of the building allows a large expanse of glass on the back, north-facing wall of the main room, as well as the stage. The stage is only 18 inches in height, scaled to the primary aged students at this grade K-3 school.

Unlike most stages, the curtains will customarily be open so that the stage’s north-facing windows are open to the main room. This unique and informal relationship between the main room and the stage is emphasized by stage curtains that when drawn, are visible through a metal mesh from the main room.

The building orientation and roof slope facilitate passive nighttime cooling by means of natural, stack ventilation. This is accomplished by means of hidden louvers on the south and operable clerestory windows above the stage. An exposed radiant concrete floor slab will provide heating, while below-stage displacement cooling will eliminate the need for ducts. Wall mounted lighting is entirely indirect, leaving the acoustical roof deck free of light fixtures or ducts.

Water from the main roof will be collected by vertical tubes, and discharged into a bioswale, and natural filtration system. The entire process of conveying rainwater from the gutter, into the tubes, then into the bioswale will be visible.

Interior View Looking North at Stage

Prince Memorial Greenway Creek Clean-up

Todays creek clean-up results

Today several staff members joined together to give our backyard creek area a little extra clean-up. With all the recent rains, and heavy foot traffic use of the Prince Memorial Greenway, excess trash had built up along the pathways, planters, and creek.  A call went out to the TLCD staff asking anyone who was interested in lending a hand, and spend their lunch hour, to pick up this excess trash.

Since so many of us walk the creek during our lunch hour, the outpouring of volunteers was inspiring.  Craig Gaevert was kind enough to loan several pairs of Grabbers and trash bags, so we didn’t have to crawl around on our hands and knees.

As we all moved along the pathway, picking up cigarette butts, paper, bottles, cans, and enough clothing to cover one human being, many folks walking and riding by gave us a hearty, “Thank You”, thumbs up and smiles.  It felt great to be giving something back to the community, knowing our work was appreciated and enjoyed by all.

General consensus, among those who participated, felt it was well worth their lunch hour to participate in something so positive and beneficial to the community. It was decided this is something we should do on a regular basis. And we will.

Ideas Worth Spreading

Biomimicry has been one of those buzz words in the architecture community for a while now. There are many different products on the market and also many buildings that claim to have been inspired by nature in some way, but I haven’t seen very many people using the concept on a larger, regional scale. This video is a short presentation by Michael Pawlyn about several concepts from nature that can be applied to architecture that could transform how our work impacts the environment. Pretty audacious, I know.  He tells an interesting story about a beetle in the desert who comes out at night in order to create condensation on its back.  The beetle’s shell is shaped so that it can pour the condensation directly into it’s mouth in the morning for a drink of life-sustaining water.  The beetle’s resourcefulness can be applied architecturally to help reverse desertification in Africa and other parts of the world.

The video is from the TED website, where they have a collection of short presentations about all kinds of interesting topics that are worth checking out. TED is a nonprofit that does conferences and other activities and, in their own words, they are “devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading”

[ted id=1072]

Cash Conference 2011

Don and John attended the 2011 CASH conference held at the Sacramento Convention Center. The event was attended by nearly 1000 school district personnel, architects, engineers, and contractors involved with the design and construction of school facilities. The theme of this year’s conference was “Your Challenges, Your Solutions, Your Conference”. Many of the workshops and roundtable discussions were focused on high performance schools, and improving academic performance through good design. It was also inspiring to see some of the award winning projects that school districts around the state have recently completed.

 

Roseland Creek Elementary School Bids!

Roseland Creek Elementary School bids are in and the apparent low bidder is Lathrop Construction at $15,896,000.  This is great news for the District because it includes the cost of the entire school!  There was some concern that if the bids came in high, they would not be able to afford the multi-use building.  We received 6 bids and the three low bids were within $70,000 of one another.  Construction is scheduled to begin in April.

Roseland Creek Elementary School

NEW UL ASSEMBLY SEARCH ENGINE – FIRE WIZARD

UL has developed a new search engine on their website, called “Fire Wizard,” to assist designers in locating appropriate UL assemblies based on construction parameters. I have tried the wizard and it definitely reduces the search time when compared to the original UL search directory.

To give it a try, go to http://www.ul.com/firewizard.

Nice improvement UL!

 

Article form "Life Safety Digest" winter 2011

TLCD’s Workplace Wellness Program Featured in North Bay Business Journal

TLCD’s Fit Force is featured in an article on Workplace Wellness Programs in this week’s North Bay Business Journal. Companies of all sizes are embracing programs like these and TLCD Architecture continues to think of innovative ways to integrate healthy habits into the workplace.

The photos below are from last winter’s “Super Healthy Bowl” cook-off where staff made healthy versions of their favorite soup, stew or chili recipe.

Incredible Walk

Trying to take advantage of our recent fabulous January weather, on Sunday I took one of the most beautiful urban walks in the U.S. The walk from the Palace of Fine Arts along the Chrissy Field waterfront to Fort Point  in San Francisco was just incredible. The walk ends under the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge and  the bridge is in view  the whole time. It is two miles each way and an easy flat walk. Worth a trip to San Francisco.

Two mile route from the Palace of Fine Arts to the Golden Gate Bridge

The Palace of Fine Arts has just been restored and is absolutely beautiful. It is well worth a visit in itself. The scale of  the structures is immense and the reflecting pool provides a beautiful vista of the complex.

McCarthy Library Receives 3form Contest Award

The McCarthy Library has earned the “Stone Cold Gorgeous” Award in the 5th Annual People’s Choice 3form Installation Contest. We are thrilled that so many people voted for the Library in this contest, which marks the third award recognition for the building!  3form was used in the ‘floating classroom’ that projects into the high-volume day-lit reading room of the Library. View all of the contest winners and check out what people had to say about the Library.

TLCD Gives Generously During Holiday Season

TLCD’s second annual 1/2 Ton Food Drive Challenge ended on a high note last week when we reached 1075.5 pounds of food for the Redwood Empire Food Bank. Many thanks go out to our wonderful staff who not only contributed to the food drive in a big way, but also gave generously to needy families through the Volunteer Center’s Giving Tree. Thank you for making this holiday season better for families in need.

Major Donation to TLCD Food Drive

The TLCD “Half Ton Food Challenge” had a huge boost today when Kristen and Erica Gentry of GCCI General Contractors donated 330 pounds of food! Tami Hebein, who previously worked for GCCI, sent a call to action to many of her friends and family to help us reach our goal of 1,000 pounds of food by January 5th. Not only did GCCI deliver in a big way with their food donation – they are cheering TLCD on in our pledge to match $1 for every pound of food donated.

Thank you to the team at GCCI for their generous spirit of giving. Let’s keep the momentum going and meet that 1,000 pound challenge!

TLCD Food Drive Poster

Roseland Creek School Receives Funding


Bird's Eye View from Burbank Avenue

We had an unexpected phone call from the Roseland School District this morning informing us that they have received state funding for the construction of Roseland Creek School.  This 750 student energy-effiecient elementary school will be built on Burbank Avenue in west Santa Rosa.  It has been awaiting funding for almost 3 years.  The primary challenge in designing this school was accommodating a large student population on a small, 8 acre site.  Our compact ‘urban’ 2-story design solution is unique for an elementary school in our area, and frees up substantial outdoor play area for students.

Knowledge Architecture – KA Connect Event

KA Connect 2011 is a knowledge and information management conference for the AEC industry. Thought leaders from all over the world will come together to share best practices, stories, and ideas about how they organize information and manage knowledge in their firms.  Whether you are in Practice Leadership, Operations, Human Resources, Marketing, Finance, BIM/CAD Management, or of course, IT, this event may well be of interest.  See link below
for more information: http://www.ka-connect.com/conference.php

 

McCarthy Library and Kaiser Hospital Expansion Honored at Top Projects Awards

TLCD was out in force at last night’s 2010 Top Project’s Awards, hosted by the North Bay Business Journal. Alan Butler, Jason Brabo, Stephen Peakes, Brian Wright, Mark Adams, Nate Bisbee, Suzanne Nagorka and Marina Starkey represented TLCD Architecture at this event which showcases the top real estate projects in the North Bay. Linda Challoner accepted the award for the Kaiser Hospital Expansion on behalf of Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa, and Dan TerAvest accepted the award for the stunning McCarthy Library at Napa Valley College. Winning two Top Project Awards this year is a testament to TLCD’s long-term relationships and spirit of collaboration with our valued clients!

Mendocino College Library Going Vertical!

After 6 months of earthwork, utilities and foundations, steel is finally being flown at the new Mendocino College Library in Ukiah. Cal Erectors, a subcontractor to Midstate Construction started putting up the steel beams, columns, and decking Wednesday, December 1, and plans to have the entire structure erected by December 10. We’ll keep you posted, it is very exciting to see this great new building taking shape.

What Happens in Vegas …

…will slowly filter into the HealthCare Studio and diffuse into the rest of the office.

Between Nov. 13-16 (yes writing this blog post took a while) Jamie and I attended the Health Care Design 2010 Conference in Las Vegas.  For those who have never heard of the Health Care Design Conference it is an annual conference of Health Care Designers, Facility Managers, and Health Care Providers that focus on the research and progress of design in the health care environment, particularly evidence based design. 

The 4 day event gave us the opportunity to be part of unique discussions on topics ranging from “Codes and Standards: How they Affect the Design of Patient Rooms” to the “Light Health and Energy Efficiency”.  In general the presentation focused on presenting research finding and lessons learned from around the world. Many of the topics I was involved in focused on Energy Efficiency in the Health Care environment and the design and theory of design of psychiatric facilities. In terms of the design of psychiatric facilities some of the most interesting discussion occurred around the difference in how risk management affect design in the US vs facilities abroad. US facilities tend to be designed in a very risk averse manner where the concern is placed on preventing every possible method of damage to both the facility and patient where as many of the facilities shown outside of the US exhibit less emphasis on preventing incidents and more focused on the design providing a healing environment.  To paraphrase on of the presenter (Stefan Lundin of White Arkiteker AB)  ‘we should design for the 95% percent of the time good things happen not the 5% of the time bad things happen. Because it is that 95% of the time that good design can help patients in these facilities.’  As side note another great psychiatric project to look at by BIG + JD is the Helsingor Psychiatric Facility. 

If anyone is interested in learning more about the lectures and discussions that were attended please let me know, in many cases we have digital versions of the presentations.

Additionally Jaime and I were also able to tour two different healthcare facilities in Las Vegas, the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health (by Gehry) and the Department of Veteran Affairs Las Vegas Medical Center.  Images of both of these facilities as well as images of Las Vegas will be available on the TLCD flickr account soon.  Although if you itching to see images of the Lou Ruvo Center along with a scattering of other images from Vegas you can see them now here.

On a Vegas note I was struck by Daniel Libeskind’s  new building ‘Crystals’ in City Center.  Of all the buildings on the Vegas Strip this one was probably the most well executed and cleanly detailed. The interesting part was that even given the angularity and organized chaos in the space it was one of the most calming spaces in Vegas to be in.  There are some additional photographs of the space I took in the same set of images linked to earlier (towards the bottom).

The Beauty and Desolation of Detroit

As many people may be aware the city of Detroit has admittedly seen better days.  To give an example the current population about 40% of its postwar peak.  This has resulted in what can be bluntly put as an excess of building stock, much of it in decay.  While it’s not something we think about very often the slow decay of buildings has a strange surrealism and beauty to it, this has been captured by various photographers in Detroit recently particularly well by the these photographers (see links below).

http://www.marchandmeffre.com/detroit/index.html
http://seanhemmerle.com/ (Look at the Rust Belt under PROJ)

Photograph by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. http://www.marchandmeffre.com/

McCarthy Library Receives Merit Award at the AIARE 2010 Design Awards

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It was a great win for TLCD this past Saturday at the AIA Redwood Empire Chapter 2010 Design Awards. Napa Valley College’s McCarthy Library, which was completed in 2009, received the Merit Award in the Built Category. With 57 entries in total, the 2010 competition was one of the toughest yet. Projects ranged from private residences to large education facilities, backyard studios to estate wineries. During the awards ceremony, local architects and their invited guests meandered through the banquet hall to view presentation boards for the submitted projects.

While we all settled into our chairs for the awards announcement, there was a tiny hum of excitement across the hall. Wendy Young, AIARE Executive Director, started off the awards by thanking the sponsors and expressing how great it was to have so many talent individuals gathered in one space.

When McCarthy Library was revealed as the winner of the 2010 Merit Award, a huge round of applause came from the TLCD peanut gallery.  Senior Principal Alan Butler accepted the award on behalf of the TLCD team and appreciated the hard work and creativity that made the McCarthy Library a reality.  Check out the submission photos for the McCarthy Library in the slideshow above. To view the full list of all of the Design Awards entries, visit the AIARE website.

TLCD Gang at the 2010 Sonoma County Healthcare Conference

Yesterday several of us attended the North Bay Business Journal’s 2010 Sonoma County Healthcare Conference. TLCD Architecture has been a sponsor of this event for the past three years and was encouraged by the strong turnout at our booth. “What is an architecture firm doing at a health conference”, you ask? Great question! Since this was overwhelmingly the most frequent question at last year’s conference we decided to beat everyone to the punch and place tent cards on all the tables encouraging attendees to stop by our booth and find out why we were there! It was very successful and many people stopped by and entered to win our fitness package that we raffled off at the end of the conference. So why was an architecture firm at a healthcare conference you ask? TLCD is committed to our local healthcare community and feel it is our responsibility to be sure all the health providers in our area are aware of the award winning design services that are available to them in their back yard. Many healthcare providers, especially the smaller or independent practitioners are not familiar with the rigorous review and planning regulations that are involved in order to realize their maintenance and expansion plans. In all, we had a great time meeting people in our community who share our commitment to healthcare excellence and informing them about how TLCD can assist them by improving the quality of their facilities for their members. Thanks to Marina and Bridgett for all their hard work and preparations, it really showed!

The Uglies

I found an interesting document on the San Mateo Community College website about common oversights that create “The Uglies”  This is something that we all could spend a few minutes looking at.

-aB

The Uglies-San Mateo CCD

From the document:

Okay, so “The Uglies” is not exactly the best way to characterize what’s going on in these photos.

• But there are other things going on that we want to call to your attention, and ask that you do not replicate these conditions in our facilities! These examples illustrate conditions that are:
– Difficult to maintain
– Difficult to operate
– Not durable enough for our institutional or environmental conditions
– And yes, some really are just ugly

Sketchbook

 

I think that almost every architect has more than one sketchbook in a bookcase at home with one or two sketches and good intentions to fill the rest of it. I bet I have ten or more and some of them have not been opened for a decade or more. My last two trips to Italy, I have finally gotten over my inhibitions (what if I do a bad drawing!?) and carved out the time to sketch regularly. This fall, while my wife Margaret was in Italian language classes, I went out and walked, took pictures and sat and sketched. My goal was to do at least one sketch each day. Linked on Flickr are some of the sketches I did.

We spent ten days in Rome, then travelled northeast about 3 ½ hours by bus to the town of Ascoli Piceno in the Le Marche province. It is a vital and economically robust town of 60,000 with a medieval core that dates from the 11th and 12th century. We stayed in an architect’s home overlooking the town that that had been converted to a B&B by his nephew, so you will see lots of views of the towers from above. Urbino was our next stop and focused around a renaissance fortress on a hilltop that is every travel photographers dream. Our last stop was Ferrara, a town about the size of Santa Rosa with an intact walled core dating from medieval and renaissance times. Sketching was a relaxing way of making myself sit quietly in one place for a while and really contributed to making this into a true vacation. I’ve got a couple of slide shows scheduled in January to show both the historic and contemporary facets of our trip.

 

Results on the Sonoma County School Bond Measures

Seven out of the eight school bond measures in Sonoma and Napa Counties won approval during last Tuesday’s voting. The vote to increase property taxes will pay for $107 million in construction and maintenance projects, including solar installations and classroom improvements.

TLCD was chosen as the architect for the Bennett Valley School District, which will receive $10.6 million for projects at their Yulupa and Strawberry Elementary School campuses. Other successful school districts include West Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley, Twin Hills, Forestville, St. Helena, and Cloverdale.  Unfortunately, Piner-Olivet District, which we were also awarded work for, did not pass its bond measure.

TLCD’s K12 Education Practice Area has been actively following the bond measures and expects a number of RFPs to be issued within the next few months.

For a full synopsis on the bond measures, check out the article from the Press Democrat.

State of Ohio Goes to BIM!

Yet another major owner joins the growing group of entities that not only require BIM for their projects, they have a protocol in place.  Of particular interest is the chart for architectural service fees, indicating the difference between BIM & Non-BIM projects.  See link below:

http://www.das.ohio.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=VD8N3VDCjno%3D&tabid=305

Halloween Fun at TLCD!

Lobsters, Giant’s Players and Movie Characters dominated the day at the annual TLCD Architecture Halloween contest. The Healthcare team, wearing Lobster hats were at the mercy of evil chef Dylan, who was intent on skewering them. The two consecutive wins by the San Francisco Giants inspired Julie to dress as Tim Lincecum and Marina as Brian “The Beard” Wilson. Our newest hires showed their creativity with movie inspired themes. Scott was Indiana Jones, Bridgett was Russel from the movie “Up” and Amanda was an Indian Princess.

It was great fun and thanks to everyone who participated!

 

College of Marin New Academic Center featured in ArchDaily

The design competition entry for the New Academic Center at College of Marin, prepared by TLCD Architecture and Mark Cavagnero Associates, was featured in the October 26 edition of ArchDaily: http://www.archdaily.com/84268/college-of-marin-new-academic-center-tlcd-mark-cavagnero-associates/

The design competition was held back in November of 2009, and after a very long selection process the team of TLCD/MCA was finally selected in May of 2010. We completed the programming phase of the project in August of 2010, and are currently waiting for Board approval of the program before we start on the Schematic Design.

Middle School Students Visit TLCD

On October 7th TLCD Architecture was visited by 30 students from Roseland Middle School.  These students were interested in learning about the professions of architecture and interior design and heard from four presenters.  Domenica Sheets talked with the students about interior design.  Dylan Chavez explained the importance of green design in light of global warming, and he showed them TLCD Architecture’s green roof.  Guy Messick showed images and videos of various BIM and 3D modeling programs, and gave students the opportunity to take control and fly through a building model.  Don Tomasi talked about becoming an architect and talked about the process of design, using Museum on the Square as an example.The students each wrote wonderful thank-you letters.  They are great – you have to check them out!

Student Thank-You Letters

TLCD Attends Impact Sonoma Conference

Impact Sonoma

Mark Adams and Marina Starkey attended the first ever Impact Sonoma Conference on October 19th, hosted by the North Bay Business Journal. The event brought business leaders in the technology, services and clean tech industries together to discuss their strategies for locating businesses in Sonoma County, and more importantly how to spur innovation and create jobs. Companies represented by panelists included Horizon Air, Raydiance, TriVascular, EnPhase, Metier, and Clubsource Development Partners.

Each of their stories for building businesses in Sonoma County are fascinating and shed light on the unique challenges of locating to the North Bay. To read more, click on the link below.

http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/25988/impact-sonoma-conference-presenters/

 

 

TLCD Architecture Receives Two NBBJ Top Project Awards

The North Bay Business Journal announced the winners of the 2010 Top Project Awards today and TLCD Architecture had two winning projects! The McCarthy Library at Napa Valley College was selected in the Education category, and the Kaiser Permanente Hospital Expansion in Santa Rosa was selected in the Medical category. These projects will be honored at an Awards Reception on December 8th at the Sheraton Sonoma County and will also be featured in a special NBBJ supplement publishing on December 6th.

The caliber of design work at TLCD and the level of commitment by our staff is a true source of pride!

AIA San Francisco Mentorship Program – “Bridging the gap while using BIM”

David Haynes of Ideate and I will be presenting in San Francisco at the AIASF on October 19th as part of their Mentorship program.  Info below:

AIASF Mentorship + Ideate “Bridging the gap while using BIM”
October 19, 2010 at 11:30am  – 1 pm
AIA San Francisco, 130 Sutter Street, Suite 600 AIASF

PROGRAM:
Beyond the introduction and benefits of BIM, we will discuss how BIM users have filled in gaps that some of us may have discovered when transitioning to BIM.  Panelist include, Guy Messick Director of Design Technology, TLCD Architecture and David Haynes, Director of AEC Services, Ideate.  Moderated by the AIASF Mentorship committee.

Click here to RSVP: http://ideateinc.com/trng_emails/sf_ideatepresents.html

New Kaiser Hospital Tower Opens

Kaiser Medical Center

Kaiser Santa Rosa hosted a grand opening for their new hospital tower expansion designed by TLCD Architecture. The 146,400 sf expansion nearly doubles the size of the hospital and includes a new emergency department, intensive care unit, interventional radiology suite, MRI, nuclear medicine center, and additional patient beds.

TLCD Architecture’s patient centered design of the hospital expansion brings the healthcare providers closer to the patients, encourages family participation in the healing of their loved ones, and is respectful of the enviornment with sustainable materials and features.

For more information about this project:

Santa Rosa Press Democrat

North Bay Business Journal

Check out photos from the grand opening ceremony.

Happy Park(ing) Day

Parking(Day), Rebar
Photo courtesy of: Rebar

Individuals and communities are gathering together today to transform metered parking spaces into temporary Park(ing) public places.  What began as a single art installation by San Francisco design studio, Rebar, has turned into a global movement to bring awareness to the need for public open space especially in underserved urban areas.   The annual event has evolved from its original tree-bench-sod model to include gardening demonstrations, free health clinics, and even live music performances.  Check out instillations from 2009.

Mendocino College LLRC Groundbreaking

On Wednesday, September 8, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new Library and Learning Resource Center at Mendocino College in Ukiah. The ceremony, which occurred on an unseasonably cool afternoon, was attended by about 50 people, including the college board of trustees, faculty, staff, students, community members, and various elected official representatives, including Benj Thomas, the shorts-clad mayor of Ukiah. President/Superintendent Kathy Lehner moderated the ceremony, which concluded with the mandatory photos with golden shovels.

The 47,000 square foot building, which is being built by Midstate Construction, was actually started in June, and they were scheduled to begin the first pour of concrete foundations this morning at 2:00 am. I couldn’t seem to convince John Hunter that he should be there to witness the first pour. The building is expected to be ready for occupancy by the Spring of 2012.

The event also included a tour of the recently completed East Campus, which relocated the modular buildings out of the way of the new LLRC, and created a new landscaped courtyard that has turned out to be extremely popular. A tour of the nearly completed Maintenance Building/Warehouse was also part of the afternoon festivities.

All 3 of the projects were designed by TLCD, and the feedback from the College so far has been very positive.

Check out the Obelisk

The 60' Obelisk on Santa Rosa Avenue

It is not the Piazza di Popolo in Rome or the Place de Corncorde in Paris, in fact it is in front of the Nissan dealership on Santa Rosa Avenue. This weekend a 60 foot obelisk was set in place. It is a 52′ structure with a tube steel frame and welded bicycle parts sitting on an eight foot base.  The sculpture was  commissioned by Santa Rosa Nissan as part of their 1% for art contribution. The sculpture was created by Petaluma artists Mark Grieve and Ilana Spector. Former TLCD architect Danny Strening did the permit drawings and Kevin Zucco of  ZFA was the structural engineer. It is a pretty remarkable and sizable structure. Be sure to check it out. There was an article in the Press Democrat online version yesterday. http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100824/NEWS/100829808/1349?Title=From-old-bikes-to-beauty-&tc=ar

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Summer Smoothies a Big Hit!

TLCD’s Fit Force had the blenders buzzing for this week’s Wine Wednesday. To celebrate summer and healthy food choices, Sandy, Domenica, Jack and Marina prepared their favorite smoothie recipes and poured samples for the staff. Also posted were sign-up sheets for after hours activities such as indoor rock climbing, softball, group biking, etc. If you missed “Summer Smoothies” check out the recipes below and see Sandy if you’d like to sign up for any of the fall activities.

Smoothie Recipes

TLCD’s Prolific Gardeners!

When we asked our staff, “how does your garden grow” earlier this summer, we were thrilled to see the number and variety of back yard gardens producing beautiful flowers, fruits and vegetables! At this week’s Wine Wednesday, we met at Craig and Michelle’s house for a tour of their “producing” garden, as well as Michelle’s habitat and native plant garden (a haven for butterflies). Michelle is a Landscape  Designer, and shared her depth of knowledge and passion for gardening with all of us. As parting gifts, we all received a rustic garlic bulb from the garden!

TLCD’s Luther Burbank Savings Project Hits the Press!

On Wednesday, July 21, Luther Burbank Savings announced to the public via a Press Release, their plans to relocate their Santa Rosa branch office to the former Traverso’s site at 106 B Street. TLCD Architecture has been working behind the scenes for months on the designs for this dynamic downtown remodel which will double the bank’s current space. The Luther Burbank Savings building in tandem with Museum on the Square project is part of what many hope will be a “downtown renaissance”. Check the following links to articles published today in the Press Democrat and North Bay Business Journal regarding this exciting news!

Community Colleges – Quote from Kay Ryan, U.S. Poet Laureate

“I simply want to celebrate the fact that right near your home, year in and year out, a community college is quietly — and with very little financial encouragement — saving lives and minds. I can’t think of a more efficient, hopeful or egalitarian machine, expect perhaps the bicycle.” Kay Ryan, U.S. Poet Laureate, quoted in Boneshaker, Issue 42-400.

Museum on the Square Approved by City

Last evening at a joint meeting of Santa Rosa’s City Council and Redevelopment Agency, terms and conditions for the sale of our Museum on the Square project to our development team won approval. The project was discussed for more than 2 hours, and was finally approved unanimously. This action is the last major governmental approval, and gives Museum on the Square, LLC the right to purchase the property at the time we pull our building permit. It culminates 6 months of negotiations between the City and Museum on the Square, LLC. The Press Democrat did an excellent job of covering the meeting: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100629/ARTICLES/100629478/1350?Title=Santa-Rosa-sells-AT-T-building-for-Museum-on-the-Square-

Museum on the Square from Exchange Avenue

High Performance Whitepaper

High Performance Mechanical Systems for Institutional Buildings

When it comes to “High Performance,” are you up to snuff on the best available tools?  In his latest whitepaper, Alan Butler– with the help of Mechanical Engineers Tony Costa (Cost Engineers, Inc.) and Mike Lucas (Alfa Tech)–has compiled a careful study of the best high performance mechanical systems for institutional buildings.  The research ranges from popular displacement ventilation systems to less well-known enthalpy wheels and geothermal systems.  To learn more about today’s energy efficient systems for your latest building or project, download the whitepaper here.

Welcome Back Trailer Team!

Jack, Julie, Dayna and Bill

Monday, TLCD held a BBQ on the main deck to welcome the Kaiser trailer team back to the office. After being offsite for 2 years, the team will usher the new Northwing hospital expansion (82 bed addition; 146,400 sqft.) to completion by October 2010. Working closely with OSHPD from day one, the team was able to obtain approval for the hospital expansion in a unprecedented 15 months, with no deferred approvals.

Our office was able to provide Kaiser with the Architectural Design, Interior Design, Master Planning/Disruption Planning, Medical Planning/ Programming, Equipment Planning, Furniture Planning, Project Management, and BIM Consulting/Implementation.

Well done!

Welcome back everyone, thanks for all of your (continuing) hard work!

TLCD Profiled in Current Ideate Solutions Newsletter

The current issue of the Ideate Solutions Newsletter devotes an entire page to a client profile on TLCD Architecture. The page 3 layout talks about our successful history of collaboration with Ideate, Inc., our ongoing staff training program and community outreach activities. This publication actually contains a full menu of courses offered by Ideate and is worth checking out. The issue is posted on the front page of Ideate’s website, which should provide TLCD some great exposure!

Kaiser Santa Rosa Construction Tour

Yesterday we piled into the elevator… as Julie Wycoff, Bill McNearney, and Dayna Barron-Stagg led a large group from TLCD through the Kaiser Hospital North Wing Expansion in Santa Rosa.

It is still under construction for a few more months, but the addition of furniture and equipment is really starting to make the space come to life!

Professor William J. Mitchell, pioneer of urban computing, RIP

Prof. Mitchell’s work has had, and still does, a significant influence on how I approach the intersection of art, design and digital work.  A quote below from Revit Factory veteran David Conant:

The design community has lost a great thinker. One whose ideas provided foundations for the very work we are engaged in on a daily basis. Several of us on the Revit team were touched directly by Bill and his work as we started on the paths that lead us here. In the early day of Revit, we met with him several times to discuss the feasibility of our effort. He was most encouraging. As he moved on, he never lost that clarity that allowed him to be thinking 10 years ahead of the tools and paradigms used in practice. Bill’s passing will be a loss to all who are involved in the community of design.

TLCD Architecture Now Under Contract with AOC on Lakeport Courthouse

TLCD Architecture formally announced yesterday a contract agreement with the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) for architectural services for the New Lakeport Courthouse to be built in Lakeport, CA.  Teaming on this effort are Santa Rosa’s own TLCD Architecture and Boston-based Shepley Bulfinch (with whom TLCD paired on the Doyle Library).  The release announces the contract signing milestone, and includes a brief discussion about the project and site selection. Read the press release here.

Hoptown Returns to the North Bay

Friday night June 11th from 8:30 to 12:30AM, Hoptown will be playing at the Twin Oaks Tavern (5745 Old Redwood Highway) in Penngrove. I’ll be debuting my new banjo and will be playing parts of the first two sets, but there will be plenty of regular rock and roll from the band as well. There’s no cover, and the Twin Oaks gets good notices for reasonable drink prices and being a friendly place to spend an evening.

Design Technology Update – Revit 2011

We have successfully upgraded our primary BIM software, Revit Architecture, to the current 2011 version. All new and recent projects will be able to take advantage of the significant new features of this BIM engine.  From enhanced sun path analysis to the ability to virtually experience projects in near render quality, in real-time, TLCD is staying in the forefront of successfully utilizing this component of our Design Technology strategy.

What are Plug Loads?

You may see this device plugged into workstations, copy machines and other office equipment in the next few weeks. It is one of three of these devices I have on loan from the PG&E Energy Center in San Francisco. It measures the kilowatt hours used by any electrical device and can calculate costs on an annual, monthly or weekly basis. I have become increasingly interested in “phantom loads”, all that power that is consumed while our office machines wait to be used.  For example the Resource Station by my office has a computer, monitor and two scanners and is almost always left on 24 hours a day. Last night in the fourteen hours it was on while nobody was in the office it drew 2.26 kilowatt hours. Doesn’t sound like much but in the 6,256 hours it is left on when nobody is in the office it uses $177 dollars worth of electricity each year. This is 938 KWH per year which would probably be equivalent of  a pretty high residential monthly power bill.

There are lots of emerging technologies that I hope we will use in the new office. Some are as simple as occupancy sensors attached to plug strips which shut off all non essential power if you leave your desk for a period of time. We are  using  this at the new Yuba Center in Clear Lake.  New building wide  systems, similar to what we are using for daylight controls in our more sophisticated buildings, can sweep off circuits after hours and are intelligent enough to know if someone is working in that part of the building.

In the meantime think about all those transformers and devices sucking power around the office. If you can turn off a printer or copier on the way out as well as your computer we’d be  all the better. We are the best occupancy sensor devices. I’ll be tallying up the frightening numbers and showing some of the control systems  coming to the fore in  a Wine Wednesday presentation in coming  months.

Kaiser Santa Rosa Hospital Expansion featured in NBBJ article

The North Bay Business Journal featured an article in the June 7th edition titled “Kaiser Tower hits milestone toward October opening”. The project recently met a major milestone, receiving a certificate of occupancy from OSHPD which moves it ever closer to the October 10th grand opening. Jason Brabo was interviewed for this article and describes several of the features of the new facility that will improve patient care and staff efficiencies. As one of the largest construction projects in the North Bay, the Kaiser Hospital Expansion will provide much needed patient facilities to the community.

DeTurk Round Barn Renovation Update

Well, the DeTurk Round Barn Renovation (for the City of Santa Rosa – Recreations and Parks Department) is underway. As you can see from the photos the Dog Park is nearing completion and preparations for the lifting of the Barn are under way. The Dog Park is a very important part of this project, being a very popular meeting place for local (West End Historic Neighborhood) and city wide residence.  The barn is being lifted approximately 3 feet. This will provide clearance to prepare column footings and elevator pit, place underslab electrical conduit and work on a post tension concrete slab (more information and photos in a future blog). The barn will then be lowered onto a new concrete curb. Note all of the beams running through the existing window openings. The windows are being reconditioned (to maintain historic elements) and will be replaced after the lifting is complete.

Once the building is lowered the General Contractor (GCCI Inc.) will begin interior work in earnest………….Stay Tuned

DeTurk Interior Building Lifting Beams

DeTurk Exterior Lifting Beams

DeTurk Dog Park

Exciting developments on the St. Helena Montessori School

Construction Documents for the St. Helena Montessori School and Nimbus Art Center have been submitted for building permit and the Owners are anticipating the start of construction this summer.  The first phase will involve general site preparation with grading and utilities.  Portions of the school program are planned to be housed temporarily at the site (in modular buildings) to allow students to observe their school as it is being built.  Subsequent phases are being reviewed for scheduling and will most likely begin with the Primary/Elementary classrooms.  The graphics for the site plan and selected views will be posted online and at the site for a taste of what will be built over the next couple of years.  We’re excited, along with the School and Arts Community, to see things moving forward!  Check out the flythrough of the site – see below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCZGOS8nTes]

TLCD Honored at NorthBay biz “Best of” Event

NorthBay biz magazine held their annual “Best of” event on Thursday evening at the Santa Rosa Golf and Country Club.  TLCD was honored with a Gold Medal award, received by Alan Butler, Mark Adams, Marina Starkey and Sara Thompson. Alan also received the award for the Redwood Empire Food Bank for Gold Medal in the Nonprofit/Charitable Organization category.

This was the magazine’s 21st year conducting their annual readers poll, and the 9th year hosting the event.  In total more than 2500 reader ballots were cast, which translated to 43,000 votes in 38 different categories. Norm and Joni Rosinski–the publishers of the magazine–were dressed to the nines to present awards to 80 award-winning North Bay companies.  Upon receipt of their respective awards, local business people were given the chance to say a few words.  Their passion for their work and appreciative spirit were welcome, especially in recent tough economic times.

Set by the golf course with plenty of festive food and wine, this event made for an enjoyable evening.  Seven “Best of” wineries poured their renowned wines, including La Crema, J Vineyards and Winery, Honig Winery, Hanna Winery, Chalk Hill Estate, Siduri Wines, and Jordan Vineyard and Winery. TLCD looks forward to participating again next year!

Armstrong: ‘Does it Always Rain Here?’

Amgen

No, in fact, it doesn’t.  This local news headline came from none other than Lance Armstrong in response to Monday’s chilly rainfall over the Amgen Tour of California bicycle race. The 110-mile second stage of the race drenched cyclists through a tour of Sonoma County in cold and unrelenting rain over four intense climbs.  But the wet weather did not keep TLCD race fans away; a few staff members bundled up to cheer the racers across the downtown finish line.  Santa Rosa resident and three-time defending champion Levi Leipheimer finished in the main group and is in 12th place overall. He is 10 seconds behind new race leader Brett Lancaster with six days of racing remaining.

Although the weather did not cooperate with the Amgen race schedule, Santa Rosa is still an enthusiastic host of this race.  “The national exposure for Santa Rosa and Sonoma County is phenomenal,” said Mayor Susan Gorin.  In the days to come, Santa Rosa will continue to buzz about the race and will keep up hope that Team Radio Shack (including Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer) will take the lead.

For those who missed the exciting ending to yesterday’s race, watch the video here:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmTrd6xfhn8&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

NVC Presentation of the McCarthy Library

NVC library

History was made at Napa Valley College yesterday afternoon.  Around four o’clock, a large group of community members, campus staff and administrators, librarians, architects, contractors, engineers, parents, friends, and students gathered for the opening of the new McCarthy Library.  “This new building,” as described by Interim Superintendent/President Armond Phillips, “will be the hub of campus activity and a place for student learning and achievement for years to come.”  The building is appropriately dedicated to the late NVC president, Chris McCarthy who advocated for student learning throughout his career. The short presentation also included a few heartfelt words from Dean of Library and Learning Resources Bonnie Thoreen, Vice President of Instruction Sue Nelson, and Director of Campus Planning and Construction Dan TerAvest.  The presentation was concluded with a reading of “The Library,” a poem by Napa Valley Poet Laureate, Gary Silva.

The event proceeded with self-guided tours of the new building, live music, and food service from the new cafe.  The mood was grand in celebration of this beautiful new building.  The only argument I overheard was between a group of librarians debating who had the coolest office!

Congratulations to the TLCD team and everyone involved with this project.  It is something you should all be very, very proud of.

TLCD Sponsors Sonoma County’s Human Race

The 29th annual Human Race, held on Saturday, May 8th was once again a huge fundraiser for Sonoma County and a great opportunity for TLCD Architecture to give back to the community as as sponsor. TLCD had a crew out at the Boat Launch at Spring Lake Park handing out water to the runners and walkers. Don, Alan, Bill, Suzanne and Marina wore bright orange TLCD logo shirts and word has it that you could see our banner and shirts from across Spring Lake!

Even more impressive were the 3 rugged athletes who ran the 10k from TLCD… Gwin, Mark, and Sara (finishing in that order). It was a beautiful day, a worthy fundraiser and a good time was had by all!

Happy Earth Day from TLCD

Today marks the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.  At TLCD, we are conscious of both the materials and the practices we employ with each of our buildings.  As architects and planners, we understand the implications that the built environment has on the natural world, and we make it our job to employ the most sustainable strategies for all of our projects.

Our 18 LEED Accredited Professionals keep green building in mind throughout the design and construction process for each of our projects.  We are currently in design phases of three projects targeting some level of LEED certification.  Additionally, our High Performance Committee searches out innovative green practices to bring back to our work and our office environment.  For example, the High Performance Committee has suggested that we transform our office green roof installation into a roof garden to provide staff and guests with fresh garden goodies.  Attendance at the annual Greenbuild conference also helps our firm stay abreast of sustainable trends in the architectural community and beyond.

Happy Earth Day from TLCD!

TLCD Gives From the Heart as a Sponsor of the Human Race

The Human Race is the largest fundraiser in Sonoma County benefiting many deserving local nonprofits. TLCD Architecture is once again excited to be a part of this incredible community event as a Sponsor and participant. Not only will we help staff one of the stations along the course, we’ll also have a few of our own running in the event on May 8th!

For anyone interested in the 3 or 10k walk/run – the forms are at the reception desk!

Rainmakers sure Did!

I attended our semi-annual Rainmakers roundtable  in Boston April 8-10.  Talk about making rain, I arrived in balmy 85+ weather and as soon as the group started arriving the weather turned cold. On Friday the group took the downpour tour of some newer Boston projects including the Norman Foster addition to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Rowing Club Boathouse, Gehry’s Strata Center (pictured), Saarinen’s Chapel at MIT and the new addition to the Media Lab at MIT by Fumihiko Maki. I’ll be showing photos of these projects and a few more at Wine Wednesday, April 21 at 5:00 p.m. Umbrellas not required.

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Forget PLam, try Soy-CornLam!

Rarely does a new ‘green’ product spark my interest like this one from Baltix. This is not only due not only to the newly engineered soy/corn laminated top over FSC certified Sierra Pine substrate – the application process allows you to continuously seal the top and edge of your materials. The soy/corn ‘paper’ printed with soy inks simply wraps down the side of your panel, and is sealed with a rock hard finish. Thus you end up with a ‘solid’ appearance, and no ugly grey seams or openings to harbor dirt.

However, as in most good things, there is a bit of a down side – darn it! The ‘paper’ is printed, and the print quality is a little sub-par. It reminds of of the laminates from 10 years ago. In some cases new laminates are almost indistinguishable from real wood. That being said – if you’re careful to chose a nice abstract or solid print, you should be fine. Who wants wrapping wood grains anyway? You also have incredible potential to create a custom design. There is a seriously small upcharge to doing so, and viola – the sky is the limit. Just remember, just because you can… doesn’t mean you should.

They are also using this continuous sealing method on a host of other ‘green’ products with their new technology including sunflower seed board, recycled paper/magazines/money board, wheat board, etc. Other products include linoleum over exposed multiply, fully powdercoated substrates, and corn (not pvc) edges. We will have samples in the office soon. Check out more here: www.baltix.com

Exposure for Museum on the Square

The Sonoma County Museum featured Chris Baumbach’s renderings of Museum on the Square in an article on the cover of its monthly publication. The article is about the Museum’s new space on the ground floor of the building.

We are looking forward to to other opportunities to promote Museum on the Square as well. Don Tomasi and Bill Carle will be presenting the project tomorrow at Leadership Santa Rosa’s Planning and Development Day. On Friday Don will present the project to the membership of SIR, Sons in Retirement at the Scottish Rite Temple in Santa Rosa. Our plans are to present our recently developed Museum on the Square powerpoint to other service groups and organizations that may be interested. If you are aware of any organizations that may be interested in a presentation please let Don know.

Tolay Lake Park

Tolay Park
Farmstead at Tolay Park

Sunday I took a long (nine mile) walk in one of Sonoma County’s newest parks, Tolay Lake Regional Park. It is on Lakeville Highway southeast of Petaluma and I believe is about 1,700 acres. Tolay Lake is a  seasonal wetland and large parts of the park are still actively grazed. The access to the park is currently limited and you must attend an orientation session to get a pass to the park, currently open on weekends only. This time of year the hills are  fantastically green and there is a fairly easy couple of mile walk up to Three Bridges View Overlook. From the top of the hill you can see a sweep of the bay area from Mt. Diablo and the Carquinez Bridge to downtown San Francisco and around to the west to Novato and Petaluma. If you have the inclination get there soon while everything is  fantastically green! http://www.sonoma-county.org/PARKS/pk_tolay_dayuse.htm
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6th Annual Celebration of Left Coast Design

On Thursday evening, Suzanne and I attended the 2010 IIDA Honor Awards at the historic Fox Theater in Oakland. The awards are open to design firms of all sizes, focus and interest practicing in the Northern California region of the IIDA (International Interior Design Association). TLCD submitted the Mahoney Library under the category called “Serve” which includes public spaces where people gather. We arrived just as the slide show scrolled through the images we submitted for the Mahoney Library, so it was nice to have that recognition in front of 600 members! The Northern California Chapter is one of the most active in the nation and the caliber of design reflected in the winning projects was truly impressive. While TLCD did not win for Mahoney Library, we continue to be inspired by the passion for interior architecture in this region.

Each year the IIDA also selects a firm to receive their “Pioneer Award” and this year’s recipient is Architecture For Humanity. If you’ve never checked out this organization or their website, it’s well worth it.

DSA Deferred Approval for AFSS to Be Eliminated

Click on the image to learn more

DSA has instituted Policy 10-01 which states that DSA will no longer accept projects with automatic sprinkler systems (AFSS) as a deferred approval. Beginning July 1, 2010, projects must be submitted with a complete AFSS plans, hydraulic calculations, product data sheets and seismic bracing design. Projetcs that do not have complete documentation will be rejected as an incomplete submittal. Refer to DSA publication “Plan Submittal Guidelines: Automatic Fire Sprinkler System (AFSS)” for specific design and submittal requirements.

Career Day at TLCD

This morning approximately 30 middle school students from Roseland Accelerated Middle School visited our office to learn about the profession of architecture.  We divided them into two groups.  Guy and I met with them in the Garage and discussed what an architect does, how one becomes an architect, the design process, and how we build virtual buildings.

Alan and Suzanne met with the other group in the ‘Martini Lounge” and discussed sustainability and interior design.  They also showed the students our demonstration green roof.  The groups switched locations at the midpiont of their visit so that both groups had the opportunity to hear all 4 of our presentations.

The students asked great questions.  The very first question asked was “how much money do you make”?  Fortunately I’ve done presentations to middle and high school students before, and was ready for this question.  These students are much smarter than those of us who forgot to ask this important question when we were their age!

Most of these students graduated from Roseland or Sheppard Elementary Schools and will eventually matriculate into Roseland University Prep School, a charter high school that prepares students for college. This is significant because few of these students come from families with any college background, and they otherwise would have had little or no exposure to college or professional careers.  Hosting their career day activity is one small opportunity for us to help expose these students to career choices they might otherwise never have the opportunity to learn about.

A special thanks to Alan, Suzanne and Guy for participating in this event.

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

Northern California Center for Wellbeing Skate-a-thon Fundraiser

Skate-a-ThonWhen is the last time you got to roller-skate? Better yet, when is the last time you got to do it for a good cause? The Northern Center for Wellbeing is hosting a Skate-a-thon on April 11th from 5:00-6:30pm to help support its organization. The event will raise money for patient scholarships that keeps the Center as an “access-for-all” healthcare provider for nutrition and education programs for disease management such as obesity and diabetes. For more information, talk to Sara or check out the attached flyer.

Wine Road Barrel Tasting Weekend

Hey TLCD, looking for something to do this weekend?  Consider tasting some of Sonoma County’s local wines at the Wine Road’s Barrel Tasting Weekend.

The Wine Road’s Barrel Tasting Weekends take place over 2 weekends in March. You can often talk to winemakers and growers directly get detailed information about the vintage you’re tasting.

Date: Sat. & Sun March 6th & 7th, Sat. & Sun March 13th & 14th 2010

Time: 11am – 4pm Cost: $20 for each weekend, includes souvenir glass

Description: More than 100 wineries in the Russian River, Dry Creek and Alexander Valley will participate in the annual barrel tasting along the Wine Road. This is the largest wine tasting event in Sonoma County, and due to popular demand has been stretched to two weekends (with Friday optional for wineries, but many do participate). Barrel tasting is a unique opportunity to taste barrel samples (and often the same wine already in the bottle, from an earlier vintage) at the wineries, enjoy music, entertainment, and lots of great local food.

Barrel samples are a mixed lot. Remember this is not finished wine; it’s wine in process. Sometimes it tastes really good, sometimes less so. Either way, don’t let that stop you from attending, as all the wineries have plenty of finished wines to sample. Barrel Tasting is not a food or themed event. It’s main focus is on wine “futures”. Tasting out of the barrel gives you a glimpse into how the wine will taste once fully aged. The Wine Road Barrel Tasting Weekend gives you a chance to purchase wine now, typically at a discount. Once the wine is aged and bottled, typically 12-18 months from now, you can pick it up or have it shipped to you. Many of the participating wineries are very small and make extremely limited productions. This may be your only chance to scoop up the good ones before the word is out!

LED Test Drive

Two brand new LED light fixtures from Workrite are visiting our office for the week. These highly efficient fixtures are expected to have a 20 year useful life (no lamp replacement). Workrite is known for  ergonomic products like adjustable height workstations, monitor arms, and keyboard trays.

The super flexible task light is able to fold into itself becoming compact and extend virtually horizontally, inches above your desk. It has the ability to dim in four increments, and can be mounted to your worksurface or freestanding.

The undercabinet light can be mounted to a magnetic surface or strip, with the ability to tilt, directing the angle of light. The dimming mechanism for this fixture is coming soon. Both fixtures come with a 10 year warranty.

Check them out in the Martini Lounge and click the link below or let me know if you would like pricing or more info.
http://www.workriteergo.com/products/lighting.asp