The Dogrun
a place to share ideas
A recent article in The Guardian cites several studies on sustainable offices and why workers are demanding healthy work environments.
For some at Lake|Flato, the end of 2014 meant wrapping up design documents for the new headquarters building for IDEA Public Schools located in Weslaco, Texas. We are very excited to break ground on construction over the next few weeks. IDEA Public Schools is a growing network of K-12 public charter schools. Initially started as an afterschool program in a church basement in Donna, Texas in 1998, IDEA has grown into a network of 36 schools serving over 20,000 students throughout the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, and Austin; with plans to double again by 2017. Through all of this growth,...
Eric Bowman, our new Digital Design Manager joined us right before Christmas, an early present for many Revit users here at the office. While many of us were fooled at Halloween (see Rob’s costume below) the search for a BIM guru ended right before the holidays. Rob, dressed as a BIM manager. Halloween is confusing for everyone. Originally from Westport Connecticut, Eric has also lived and worked in NYC, Hartford CT, Dallas, then Austin, before landing in San Antonio. Eric received his B. Arch from City University of New York, but began his career working as an audio\recording engineer in the...
Lake|Flato has a very high percentage of employees who commute daily by bicycle. This study has some great information on how that impacts our happiness and well-being. Via BikePortland.org (brought to me via Rand Pinson ): "Commuters who bike to work are the most satisfied with their morning travel, according to a new study by Portland State Urban Studies Planning Graduate School. The study concludes that commuters who walk to work were almost as happy as cyclists, the least happy being solo drivers. Considering that 76.6% of Americans drive alone to work, the findings should resonate with...
Professional. Responsible. Pleasant. Thoughtful. Poised. At every turn, Ana has been a joy to know and work with during her time here at LF. I am thankful for the many ways she contributed to our projects and – importantly for me – my family. All the Rickels girls will miss her dearly and look forward to a hopeful return to San Antonio upon graduation! - Brandi Rickels Secretly the IDEA Public Schools Headquarters Building and the Texas Military Institute teams wished we could have cloned Ana during her time here. She quickly proved herself invaluable to both teams, and over the last six...
In honor of Lake Flato’s thirtieth anniversary, the Thirty Projects x Thirty Years series has been developed to explore and celebrate the firm’s history and culture of design. Published weekly, the series will highlight one project per year, starting in 1984 and ending in 2014. The projects that have been selected will give you a snapshot of the firm’s evolution as well as provide a fun and insightful collection on then and now, and ultimately, who we are today. Michael Jackson receives the Artist of the Century award at the American music awards, while Eminem releases single 'Lose Yourself'...
Joe just rocks. On our design team, Joe has been a “speak-softly-but-carry-a-big-stick” type of teammate; no matter what he’s tasked with, he jumps in after minimal explanation, swiftly gets the job done, and is ready for more before you know it. He’s never afraid to ask questions, but rarely needs to—he’s a very quick learner with a broad skill set, and seemingly endless patience. During his half-year here, Joe has helped cut hundreds of little foam core blocks for models, drawn thousands of tiny circles for a perforated screen pattern, prepared millions of plan iterations for David Lake…ok...
A giant smile breaks across my face when Jeannette visits my desk - she is either asking to help me with something or offering some crazy baked goodie. I think it's her smile that goes airborne and infects other people causing them to break out in senseless smiles. Or maybe she puts something in those baked concoctions - they aren't normal ingredients, you know. I'm not sure they ever make it to the other floors. Jeannette's first task was to help me take notes for a client meeting - the meeting was 6 hours long, discussing 4 different buildings in 4 different phases and yes, just one client...
November was a big month for the Josey pavilion. After winning an AIA San Antonio Honor Award and celebrating its official grand opening, the pavilion is still operating as predicted, recording an energy surplus of 68 kWh after two months of occupancy. This is the third post of a thirteen post series on the process of obtaining Living Building Status. Each month over the next year, we will be posting an update on our water and energy usage as well as an overview on how we achieved each of the 20 imperatives mandated by The Living Building Challenge. After a solid performance in October, Josey...
Lake|Flato's Andrew Herdeg will serve as a juror for AIA New York's inaugural COTE Awards . The local awards program was inspired by the national AIA COTE Top 10 program , which awards the 10 best projects for sustainable design in North America each year. The AIANY COTE Awards will recognize truly sustainable projects within 100 miles on Manhattan that set the standard for both beauty and performance.
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