by Yahya E. B. Henry In case you have not noticed by now, I am truly an advocate of infill development. I think my fascination with this particular development was highlighted in this interview by CNN with Richard Florida. In the video he highlights how America bounced back after the Great Depression. The recovery [...]
I have spoken on many occasions at Construction Law Musings and elsewhere about the risks and rewards for contractors found in sustainable construction. The rewards were fairly apparent. New markets, government incentives and the desires of owners to be “green” clearly point toward a need for contractors to get into the sustainable building game. However, [...]
Green Building is all the rage. From the latest version of LEED, LEED 3.0, to discussions of “LEEDigation.” All of this and more were topics of the first Green Matters Conference this past week in New Orleans. The fact that a conference of this type was feasible shows the growth in green construction and the [...]
After decades of declining productivity, the facility design and construction industry is beginning to benefit from powerful technologies that are poised to transform the way we design, construct and operate buildings. These technologies are commonly referred to as “BIM,” the acronym for Building Information Modeling. I personally prefer VDC, or Virtual Design and Construction, but [...]
The blogs have been crackling for several weeks with reports and analysis of the LEED “challenge” process. Chris Cheatham devoted a multiple part series to analyzing the challenge filed and ultimately rejected to the LEED Gold certification awarded to the Northland Pines High School in Wisconsin. Shari Shapiro has discussed the same and included an [...]
It’s a beautiful, warm spring day here in Richmond, VA. The sprinklers were going in neighborhood yards as I left for work this morning and the clouds are moving lightly on the breeze. With the sun shining and the birds chirping outside of my office window, even I and my old pal Eeyore could smile [...]
A recent article at the Ahead of Schedule Blog brings up a project owner’s perspective on “green” building. The article starts by stating that: Despite the explosion of articles, seminars and webinars on green building and development during the last year or so, there is a dearth of information in the development world regarding what [...]
A recent post by my friend Andrea Goldman raises the interesting question of “why bother with LEED certification”? The post highlights a recent profile on the highly sustainable Hutton Hotel project in Nashville which elected to forego seeking LEED registration and certification. In particular, Hutton Hotel representatives are quoted as saying: Doing the government documents [...]
If you were to ask three different people the definition of sustainability, you’ll receive three different answers; this is ours. Business structures are moving away from models based solely on economic returns and are now considering the environmental and social returns as well. The tides are shifting. From Mother Nature Network | Sustainability: What does [...]
Lately terms such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and Green Building have been thrown about in the press, by politicians, and by local zoning and building officials in Virginia. Nationally, the Obama administration has shown support for green building. The Richmond, Virginia City Counsel recently passed Resolution 2008 R 152 that will [...]
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