BetterBricks Awards honor top green practitioners

Last Friday morning in a crack-of-dawn breakfast ceremony at the Hilton, the BetterBricks Awards honored members of Oregon's design and construction community for their efforts in creating energy-efficient architecture.

BetterBricks, a nonprofit initiative of the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, is also a sponsor of this website. Hopefully this post will not seem like advertorial-style promotion for BetterBricks. But I deemed the awards a relevant story to report.

The awards were given out in six categories: (1) owner/decision-maker, (2) architecture, (3) engineering, (4) facility management/building operations, (5) advocate and (6) emerging leader. Continuing a trend from past years, honorees came from Gerding/Edlen Development, architecture firm SRG Partnership and mechanical engineer Interface Engineering, as well as a few other sources.

The owner/decision maker award went to Mark Edlen, head of Gerding/Edlen Development. This was probably a no-brainer for the jury, considering that Gerding is not just Portland's most active and large-scale green developer, but one of the nation's.

The architect winner was John Schleuning of SRG Partnership. Schleuning is the 'S' in the firm's acronym, and has guided SRG through decades of very solid design work. I actually associate Kent Duffy as much or more with SRG's most significant projects of recent years than Schleuning, but Duffy's boss is a guiding hand for the whole firm and has an impressive long track record. Duffy has previously won a BetterBricks award anyway. SRG doesn't have as high a profile as other comparable medium-sized firms. They've largely sat out the condo boom of the last several years, for example, instead focusing on public buildings such as libraries and universities. Even so, much of SRG's biggest projects include leading edge green design, such as the Lillis Business Complex at the University of Oregon and an expansion of the Mt. Angel Abbey campus beside Alvar Aalto's masterful library there.

The engineering award was a tie, between John Gray of Interface Engineering and Mike Kaplan of Kaplan Engineering. Again, I'm not sure how BetterBricks chooses what individuals from these firms receive the prizes. When I wrote about Interface's work on the GBD Architects designed, LEED Platinum OHSU Center for Health & Healing, for example, it was Andy Frichtl from that firm leading the charge. But Frichtl is a past winner for Interstate, so I guess they decided to spread it around. Regardless, Interface is a strong force in Portland green building because the mechanical engineering they offer is hugely responsible for an efficient structure: they create the guts of the building that uses energy to heat and cool the structure.

Salem Public Schools' David Furr and Kathleen Hill were the facility management winners, while Renee Loveland of Gerding Edlen Development was recognized as this year's top advocate. Dennis Wilde of Gerding is usually considered their big long-term sustainability advocate, but he's also a past winner. Naomi Cole, sustainability coordinator for Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, was honored as this year's emerging leader. She must indeed be emerging: I've visited ZGF countless times and have never met Naomi or heard her name. But ZGF does increasingly impressive work with strong sustainability credentials, particularly when working with Gerding Edlen.

Meanwhile, congratulations to all the winners. And as we look ahead, who are some of the developers, architects, engineers and other players deserving of recognition?

Comments

[Nikos]

BetterBricks awards, how exciting, take that Hollywood!

[Brian Libby]

You're right, Nikos. I shouldn't have written the post. It's much better if people doing good work go unrecognized, especially when this constitutes such unsexy news. :)

[Nikos]

Kidding, didn't mean to hurt your feelings Brian,with daylight waning and cloudy skies setting pdx can get a bit...unsexy. A bit too earnest, save the planet, ultra careful, humane, god bless its straightforward soul, prudent skylined pdx. And then the brick news. I apologize.

[JeromeU]

For those of you who might occasionally peruse comments, even previous postings, I want to add without a doubt, Naomi Cole is an energetic and passionate woman for a younger generation that understands the world differently than we presently dwell on it. She is all over ZGF, and that might be why she is somewhat hidden for now, because she is so spread out. She is currently out of country advocating and designing for our collective sustainable life practices. I was with ZGF for over fifteen years and have recently moved back to Kansas City to take the light rail and sustainable urbanism experience I practiced with Greg Baldwin and others back to my hometown and midwest, and allow my son to spend quality time with my parents. (I love you Portland) I worked with Naomi on many things, including the development and public outreach story for the Swale on Yale in Seattle in South lake Union on behalf of Vulcan and Seattle Public Utilties. Naomi was a pivotal in asking the right questions, raising important issues, and helping formulate the story that puts in layperson's terms why these type of projects are important, how they work, and elucidating the fact that in the case of green infrastructure it not only good for our environment, but good for us in the physical, social, and visual spectrum. Her fingerprints are also all over the ZGF's sustainability "card deck" that are scattered all over the offices from Los Angeles to New York City. For Betterbricks she is emerging, for myself, she has emerged. She is a young tour de force, when you see her in action.