Editor’s Note: Earlier this year, the first full-scale prototype of a revolutionary floating support structure for offshore wind turbines made its debut off the coast of Aguçadoura, Portugal. It was inaugurated and celebrated by Portuguese government officials, clean-tech investors, and its engineers and builders. Each floating support structure, known as the WindFloat*, is a three-column [...]
I only attended the last two days of Ecobuild in London this year. On the first day there, I was fully absorbed in finding the booths that shouted “this is the Landscape Architecture section,” never really bothering to slow down and take a look around. I found very few booths representing the field of landscape [...]
Energy efficient building design has come a long way to improve building system energy performance. But what happens when the users move in? Additional equipment and appliances added after occupancy can dramatically impact actual building performance with surprising and expensive results. Plug loads and process loads have been long considered outside the design team’s scope [...]
When I was working as a construction manager, I was involved with a handful of complex historic preservation projects including the conversion of a historically significant church into affordable housing (Buena Vista Terrace) for seniors and the renovation of a small historic landmark (The Fireside) into a community center. Historic preservation often presents additional challenges [...]
Salty air breezes off of the Bay. Seagulls are flying about. A six foot diameter concrete pile gets driven into the sea floor. An energizing hum of activity reverberates throughout a waterfront construction site–the future new home of San Francisco’s Exploratorium. In October of 2010, the Exploratorium–the Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception, broke [...]
Few universities can claim to have a 1-megawatt solar PV system, a wind turbine, a 60-collector solar thermal system, and a smart microgrid system that monitors and regulates the campus energy sources. Santa Clara University isn’t afraid of experimenting with renewable, clean technology that will help it work towards achieving reduced energy consumption and climate [...]
My first in-depth encounter with Eichler homes was a few years ago on a blazing hot 90°F Saturday afternoon in Palo Alto, California. I participated in a self-guided Eichler Home Tour which benefited Habitat for Humanity. It was such a treat to get a glimpse into what lay within the Eichler homes that modernized the [...]
LED (light emitting diode) is a solid-state semiconductor device that converts electrical energy directly into light. Its development started in the 1960s and has been typically utilized as indicator lights in numerous electronic products, signage and flash light applications. Just in the last few years as its technology advanced, LEDs are now used in real [...]