8 Very Cool Things about CSHQA Boise



CSHQA Boise Entry and Front Desk

We've settled in, learned the ropes and nearly dialed in the control systems for heating, lighting, ventilation and even the alarm system. What an amazing space of sophisticated and sustainable design and brilliant engineering. Here’s a quick tour of my favorites:

1. Cool foyer.
2. All of our work stations are on one floor in a big, open, collaborative space. Makes you feel truly connected and part of the energy.

3. Our ‘deli’ is bright and sunny and a nice place to eat lunch or take some time away. Come spring the patio will be extra nice.

4. The Big Kahuna – CSHQA Conference Room. It’s the largest of 5 meeting spaces.

5. Cool, filtered water that tastes great! A counter shows how many plastic bottles we have saved from a landfill.

6. Lavender plants – still blooming in November! Along the western wall of the access ramp.

7. Green and then some! This is one of five greens to be found on the northern interior wall. It's our own custom color. 2b is shorthand for Second & Broad Streets.

8. My total geek out room – the Mechanical Room. These five pumps help circulate glycol through 4.6 miles of pex under the concrete slab floor to warm or cool our space.

Thank You to Our Partners on 200 Broad St.

Almost one year ago to the day (9.27.12) Kent Hanway invited the CSHQA staff to meet at an old warehouse about three blocks east of our then current location. It wasn’t much to look at – concrete floors, warehouse doors and a few odd walls, pink insulation and bare light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, and concrete columns encased in banged-up bumpers. He explained the decision to make this space our future office and told us “This is our opportunity to transform a space and show what we can accomplish with our skills and creativity.  It's up to us.”

Today we still have concrete floors and columns, but WOW! 2│b has come a long way!  As we finish the final touches, we have many people to thank.  This very cool, very sustainable office is the result of a lot of hard work by CSHQA designers and staff, plus our construction and vendor partners led by general contractor Jordan-Wilcomb Construction, Inc. Thank you all! –

Reducing Our Footprint II - Space Planning Decisions Focus on Daylight and Collaboration

The CSHQA space plan is driven by three organizing factors:  (1) The most advantageous entry sequence originates on the corner of 2nd & Broad Streets.  (2) Workstations take first priority in natural and day-lighting considerations.  (3) Everything has to fit within 19,100 sf.

The covered patio doubles as an entry sequence and outdoor space for staff.  Adjacent spaces (lobby, front desk, conference rooms, break room, restrooms, and interior design library) radiate from this corner to take advantage of natural light from south and east.

In a decision made by the full ownership, only corporate officers have private offices – and they’re not aligned along windows as one might expect in outmoded, hierarchical thinking.  The row of three offices and two conference rooms serves to delineate ‘front of house’ public spaces and the main working area.  Skylights, clerestory windows and glass walls ensure these spaces have ample natural light.

The second entry/egress near the windowless west wall [lower left on plan] became the second jumping off point for adjacent spaces.  Non-occupied storage, equipment and restroom spaces hug the west wall.  The plan/archive room totals about half the size of our former copy/storage space in the basement of CW Moore. 

The final part of the space plan, about which everything revolves, is the open work space.  Natural light flows through the entire space.  Openness and stimulating collaboration were high priorities for the design team.  The ownership determined that all workstations would be one size, reducing the space of about 40% of our current cubicles.  This choice enabled the plan to accommodate a build-out of 80 cubicles, five informal meeting tables and a hoteling station that accommodates up to 12.  It was also decided to eliminate the overhead bins to further strengthen the open work concept. –

'2|b' Space Plan Legend

Work Stations—80 work stations, 5 informal meeting spaces (tables for 6), hoteling station (plug & play for 12)

Offices/Conf. Rooms—Offices and conference rooms, interior design library with meeting space

Main Entry—Patio, entry, front desk, lobby

Amenities—Staff break room, secure bike storage, restrooms, lockers, showers, telephone rooms

Support Spaces—Mechanical room, telecom/electrical room, covered trash, storage, print and archive

How CSHQA is Reducing Our Footprint Part I

If your office went (almost) paperless, how many trucks of recylable paper might you fill?

On the eve of our move to new offices at 2^nd & Broad I am both excited and amazed.  The choice to remodel a 50+ year-old warehouse was gutsy – kudos to our leadership.  But the steadfast commitment to this sustainable choice and all its ramifications borders on the epic.  Walking the talk involves three stages:  Reduce what you have, design for smaller, work smarter.

Reducing What You Have

Purge the archive.  When you’re pushing 125 years old you have some stuff in storage.  We wish it could have been a treasure trove of antiques.  It was a behemoth of paper.  Files, drawings, documents.  Sorting, scanning and shredding these documents was a nearly full time job for two people for more than a year.  2 man years.  That didn’t include the paper in everyone’s desk or personal flat file.  We each worked on that bit-by-bit for several weeks.

Recycle.  We have a paper-recycling cart nearly the size of a Mini Cooper.  At the peak of the office purge it was full every day for a month.  A typical dump truck holds 27 cubic yards of material.  I think it’s safe to say, including the archives, we filled the equivalent of three or four dump trucks with recyclable paper, magazines, files and drawings collected over several decades.  I think it’s also safe to say we will never repeat this feat.  Digital applications, storage hardware and the cloud are finally catching up with the reflexive tendency to hit the print button.  We truly are thinking twice.

Repurpose.  Admin set up a give-away table.  The only caveat – the new owner had to take it home, NOT to the new office.  House plants, dishes, paper goods, carpet samples, books, binders, jewel cases, small lamps, foot rests, posters, pictures, funky awards, and a crock pot(!) all found new homes.  Excess furniture, chairs, desk lamps, shelves, monitors, old computers…they found new homes too, by donation or contribution to the party fund.

Go paperless.  For some time CSHQA has made a concerted effort to print only when needed, edit in digital, store final copies on the server, and skip in the in-house copies on everything from timecards to proposals.  More software, more training?  Perhaps.  Greater efficiency?  Absolutely.

It’s been a liberating experience, seeing the nearly ‘empty’ desks poised for moving day.  It’s a good thing, too, because space-wise our new office definitely has to do more with less.  Today we have a staff of 70 in about 18,800 sf, plus an additional 12,000 sf of shared building amenities that include bike storage, lockers, trash room, server room, conference center and penthouse patio.  So, roughly 30,000 sf of accessible space.  The new office of 19,100 sf will accommodate up to 90 and still include conference, bike, trash, server, and patio amenities.  Learn how we designed for this smaller footprint in Part II. 

Design Leaders for 2nd & Broad Office are on the Move!



Design Leaders for CSHQA's new Boise office at 2nd & Broad



Project Leaders for the New CSHQA Office:  Mandie Brozo, Architecture; Nicole Cecil, ASID, Interior Design; Ted Isbell, AIA, Project Architect; Dan Pirc, Electrical Engineering; Jeff Ward, PE, Civil Engineering; Jay Romlein, RCDD/OSP, Telecommunications Engineering; Russ Pratt, PE, Mechanical Engineering.  Not pictured:  Kyle Hemly, ASLA, Landscape Architect, Tim Higley, PMP, Project and Relocation Manager Extraordinaire!

Moving day is almost here.  Our scheduled day is Friday, July 19 and the people pictured above are very busy seeing to the last details.  A six-month retrofit schedule is coming down to the wire with experienced builders, vendors, utilities employees and permitting authorities all doing their part.

We started with a rough and ready warehouse with good bones and now we’re less than a month away from a high performance office building with outstanding features.  Cosmetic surgeons have nothing on this team!  I asked the design leaders what element they are most looking forward to seeing and using in the new building:

Ted – The daylight, the environment and bringing everyone together in one space.

Mandie – Daylighting, and a more open space for collaboration.

Russ – Radiant heating and cooling!

Dan – Daylighting and dimmers on lamps for every-day energy efficiency.

Jay – The ‘El Commo Cave’, the electrical and telecom room to delight any engineer!

Jeff – Permeable pavers that improve drainage on Broad Street and reduce water added to the public sewer system.

Nicole – The opportunity to showcase creative materials and work in a sustainable, healthy environment.

Kyle – Indoor bike storage, showers and locker room.

Tim – 90 fully functional work stations with nothing more to move, store, stage, archive, auction or give away… –

Retail Trends, Part III – Hispanic Shopping Malls



Hispanic Shopping Malls provide event spaces as well as entertainment and shopping experiences.

In Part I Craig Slocum, AIA covered general trends; in Part II I introduced the fastest growing segment – Hispanic Shopping Malls.  In Part III we delve deeper into how successful developers are responding to the Hispanic trend.

Demographics.  Smart developers study the local demographic and adjust days and hours of operation to reflect the culture.  In Hispanic culture extended family units spend time together and of the 50 million Hispanics in the US today 25% are under 18.  The younger population especially enjoys "domingeo" or hanging out.  Hispanic malls are open late, until 9 or 10 pm, and definitely on Sundays.

Culture.  Mall owners pay for entertainment and host community events.  They observe and celebrate Latin holidays and customs in plaza spaces built for entertainment, music, dancing and participatory activities.  Pool tables, foos ball and big slides entertain multiple generations, and ample benches and chairs are provided for customers to sit and linger.

The right retail mix.  In Phoenix, Arizona at the Desert Sky Mall Hispanic-centric stores are mixed with major retailers with training available for mainstream retailers to learn more about Latino preferences and purchasing styles.  An empty 77,000 sf Mervyns was re-purposed into a traditional Latin Mercado housing 220 small shops.  These shops include fast-food and bakeries, beauty salons and flower shops, carnicerias or meat markets, and many other retailers.  Short-term and temporary leases are offered and the Mercado acts as an incubator for new stores to get their footing before moving to the regular mall.  The mainstream theater company was replaced with Cinema Latino.

Ideal locations.  Many Hispanic malls have been situated in older malls where the previous management failed to acknowledge changing demographics and then lost market share.  These ‘distressed retail’ locations may not be poor locations after all.  Sometimes all they need is the right vision.  –

Jorge Pierson, AIA, LEED AP is an Associate with CSHQA and Regional Manager of CSHQA's Phoenix office.  He has practiced architecture in Phoenix for over 30 years providing planning, design and project management of retail, resort, residential and industrial projects throughout the Southwest.

Retail Gold Rush – Hispanic Purchasing Power Becomes a Major Player

Eduardo's Reception Hall hosts its first event at Desert Sky Mall, Phoenix, AZ 

ICSC has been on this kick for a few years now.  A couple of years ago I was lucky to attend the first National Hispanic Initiative event in San Antonio, Texas.  The site was packed with everyone wanting to know what it was and what to do about it.  We were flooded with statistics that all boiled down to this:  Hispanics are the next Baby Boomers.  Those who study markets understand what this means - money. Like all businesses retail must go where the customers are to be successful.

At RECon last month the session ‘The Retail Gold Rush’ reinforced the reality that the Hispanic market is large and growing and our businesses need to plan to take advantage of it. The panelists Chiqui Cartagena, Maria Contreras-Sweet and Colin Crawford stressed that the Hispanic buying power is growing due to increasing affluence, larger family size and continued immigration.  

In Phoenix, Arizona the Desert Sky Mall, with the help of José De Jesús Legaspi, is one of the first malls modified to address this growing market.  José’s strategy was basically very simple:  he made changes that he knew would appeal to Hispanic shoppers.  It also helped that the demographic surrounding this mall is highly Hispanic.  He knows retail dies if you do not accommodate those close to you.

By happenstance CSHQA was able to add to the Hispanic flair at Desert Sky through our client Jaime Martinez who purchased an empty shoe retail building on the mall perimeter.  Jaime and his father Eduardo, successful businessmen from Mexico, saw the potential of this vacant building and converted it to Salon De Fiestas or otherwise known as Eduardo’s Reception Hall. This turned out to be a good addition to the mall offering a great rental space for family and community events.

To wrap up: The next big wave is the Hispanic market and those who can ride it will have fun and make some money on the way.  –

Jorge Pierson, AIA, LEED AP is an Associate with CSHQA and Regional Manager of CSHQA's Phoenix office.  He has practiced architecture in Phoenix for over 30 years providing planning, design and project management of retail, resort, residential and industrial projects throughout the Southwest.

The Legaspi Company is a full-service retail real estate firm focused on the Hispanic market.  Founded by José De Jesús Legaspi, the firm identifies and capitalizes on untapped opportunities to revitalize depressed retail malls and serve the Hispanic community.  www.thelegaspi.com

In the third and final part of this Retail series we will take a closer look at elements that contribute to a successful Hispanic Shopping Mall.

Optimistic About Retail? You must have been at RECon 2013



Restaurants like Ling & Louie's are building both pad and airport concession spaces to expand their brand.

Last week I attended RECon 2013, the annual global event for the retail real estate community held in Las Vegas.  After sharing stories, ideas and trends with 30,000 of my best friends I’d say the pulse of the North American retail industry is guarded optimism.  With housing in the white-hot zone I trust the adage ‘retail follows rooftops’ will prove itself once again. 

These are the trends to keep in mind:

1.  Growth will be modest.  Overall growth will stay in the single digits for now.  Helpful factors include:  a better capitol market, an uptick in consumer spending and increased restaurant income.

2.  Re-purposing is winning over ground up.  Non-retail and class-C retail spaces are being remodeled for quality retail.  Previous failed big boxes (Circuit City, Linens & Things) are being rapidly absorbed.  Projects once started and abandoned in the recession are coming alive again.

3.  Shift toward urban density.  The millennium generation is moving away from the suburbs and toward the rewards of urban living – more diversity, interaction, entertainment and choices.  Retailers are running sprints to catch this growing consumer clout.  Super store Walmart is rolling out 40,000 sf neighborhood stores and 15,000 sf express stores.  Home Depot began introducing down-sized versions over a decade ago.  Target recently rolled out City Targets in Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle, and Office Depot has designed stores to sell 4,500 items, half their typical inventory.

4.  Brands are re-tooling.  New brands are challenging the established brands, pushing some of those brands to re-tool and reinvent.  Tenant improvements and in-store re-design are must-have skills for retail designers.

5.  Know your malls.  Outlet malls with name brand anchors are going strong.  Outside the very dense metropolitan areas (D.C, New York) standard consumer malls are currently built out, or even over built.  The big trend - the fastest growing segment of retail real estate in America - is the Hispanic Shopping Mall.  It's phenomenal!

 

Looking to serve 50 million US Hispanics, these popular malls are coming into their own in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and other mostly southern states.  Savvy developers are actively mining this new niche with a spending power expected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2015.  Read more in Part II of this blog next week:  Retail Gold Rush – Hispanic Purchasing Power becomes a Major Player.  –

 

Craig Slocum, AIA is a principal with CSHQA and a leading retail designer for the firm.  National clients include Buffalo Wild Wings, Ling & Louie's, Albertsons, Safeway, Moxie Java, Dutch Bros., Walgreens, KeyBank and T-Mobile.

Seeing Green: Manufacturing on a ‘Global’ Scale



Medical office suite with Global Industries furniture and calming color palette

The world’s fifth largest office furniture manufacturer rocks sustainability!

A few weeks ago Megumi Haus and I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Global Industries in Toronto, Canada.  What at tour!  I have been specifying furniture from their family of 40 unique factories for about three years, but seeing the production in real time was fantastic!

Our first tour was of a factory that recycles wood and plastic into furniture components, such as seat pans and backs. Company-wide this amounts to 2,000 tons of scrap diverted annually from the landfill.  Cardboard packing is 80% recycled and cardboard scraps become acoustic panel filler.  Scrap fabric, to the tune of 100 tons per year, becomes insulation or very cool cloth shoulder bags. 

We saw computer aided pattern cutting where the bits of scrap, particularly for solid prints, are tiny!  Leather cutting is taken to a new level of artistry – the entire hide is scanned in one pass with patterns and imperfections noted like a map.  Cutting patterns are adapted to each individual ‘map’ and the very best sections become furniture and cushion centerpieces.  All foam products used at Global are 100% free of chlorofluorcarbons and the company is initiating the use of soy-based adhesives to reduce petro-chemical uses.

Global Industries was started by Canadian business icon Saul Feldberg in 1966.  By the 1980’s Global was seriously engaged in the pursuit and application of recycling and environmentally sound manufacturing to make next generation products.  Today, the group of companies is interwoven in form and function, yet each one must maintain its own profitability.  I was perhaps most impressed by the dedication Global Group demonstrates to manufacturing as much as possible in North America while providing well-managed, living-wage jobs to a wide diversity of employees.

Most of the finished products we saw would be considered mid-range and are less expensive than many designer options, yet they are well designed and very well made.  I feel good about specifying products from these companies.  –

Nicole and Megumi in the Chairman's chair

Nicole Cecil, ASID, LEED AP ID+C, provides interior design and consulting to clients looking for both a great look and a healthy working environment.  To read about Global’s environmental practices visit

http://www.globaltotaloffice.com/gi_2012/control.php?ref=environment

CSHQA Concrete Pour - Last Look at the Radiant Floor System

Radiant floor system before the concrete pour.

Last week the second of two concrete pours covered the final section of radiant floor system at CSHQA's new offices at 2nd & Broad and marked a major milestone in this 5-month construction project.  Crews started at 6:30 am and by 10:30 the initial pour was nearly complete (to be followed by many hours of detailed finish work.) 

The yellow, lego-like substrate of interlocking panels provides built-in spacing and fastening for the PEX tubing, plus insulation for heating and cooling functions.  The system extends throughout the entire office except for a few spaces such as walls and the entryway foyer.  Nearly 5 miles of PEX were covered by approximately 2-7/8 inches of concrete.

Once connected to Boise's geothermal system the radiant system will provide low-cost heating; in warm months cold water will be pumped through for cooling.  This comfortable, energy efficient system completely replaces convential furnace and forced-air systems and the operational savings are expected to be significant. –



Pre-cut sub-structure boards are used as guides for an even pour.





Using their boots the crew works the concrete into the panel system. 



Smooth floor wall to wall.

Integrated Design + Six Tactics for Saving Energy

Energy Saving Tactics in Integrated Design

Energy efficiency has become a pre-eminent theme and yardstick of value for today’s generation of architects, engineers and builders.  Private, government and institutional owners alike are demanding buildings that exceed code, achieve energy certifications and deliver ever lower operating costs. 

The graphic above simplifies energy saving into six tactics.  In reality these tactics overlap, interact and can even be counter-productive when designed incorrectly.  The real strategy is Integrated Design. 

Integrated Design has replaced the traditional hand-off from discipline to discipline with an approach that features multi-disciplinary collaboration from concept to completion.  Although listed separately, the following tactics are each part of an interdependent system.

Reduce / Manage Loads

Consciously reduce the day to day energy demands.  A simple technique is set point management:  Set the heat a little lower and the AC a little higher.  Combine this with computerized management (much like the digital thermostat at home) and you can also manage start of day and end of day settings as well as weekends and holidays. 

Common sense lighting design with the appropriate watt/sq. ft. applied in each space reduces loads, as does the right building envelop.  Low-emissivity (Low-e ) windows, quality insulation and well-designed wall/roof/ceiling systems are required.

Passive systems

Passive systems are built into the building.  Daylight harvesting through skylights and light tubes brings in natural light and reduces the demand for artificial light.  Reflective roofing lowers cooling costs.  Better insulation reduces heating costs.  Natural ventilation often improves air quality and reduces air handling.

Active Systems

Each component of the HVAC system is evaluated for its energy efficiency rating.  Electrical systems including lighting controls and occupancy and daylight sensors help manage energy consumption.

Energy Recovery

When a by-product of energy use is a further source of energy, we call that recovered energy.  An example is the work station.  Computers use energy to function and to operate a cooling fan.  The heat expelled via the fan can be used to warm incoming air and reduce energy used for heating, or exhausted to reduce the cooling load.

Renewables

Solar, geothermal, bio-mass, wind and hydro-power energy.

Other

An example for our desert climate is the nighttime purge during hot weather.  Summer temperatures often become quite comfortable between 3 and 5 am, even after a hot day.  Automated purging, bringing in the cool outside air, pre-cools a space before the workday starts.

CSHQA began designing for energy efficiency long before it became standard ops.  It helped that we had clients who demanded buildings with low operating costs (grocers in particular); it also helped that we’ve always sought ways to design better buildings.  As CSHQA converts a 56-year-old warehouse into our new Boise office (See 1.31.13 post), check back for in-depth posts on these tactics as we learn from architects and engineers on the project.–

 

Air National Guard Goes for Gold



Kingsley Field Air National Guard

The new Security Forces Facility at Kingsley Field, Oregon designed by CSHQA's Oregon office and built by S&B James Construction Management recently received LEED Gold Certification.  I am very proud of the this project - on many levels:

A little bit because you and I helped pay for it;

More because it serves the men and women of our National Guard Services;

A little more because my team, in conjunction with S&B James designed and built an excellent facility;

Even more because we met more than a dozen sets of codes, requirements, statutes, minimums, maximums, you name it, and still came in on budget;

And finally… because it’s the first project on the Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base in Klamath Falls, Oregon to go through LEED or any energy certification process and it received GOLD!

The Security Forces Facility supports the 173^rd Fighter Wing of the Oregon Air National Guard and houses command, administrative, Base Defense Operations Center, pass and ID stations, law enforcement, arms vault, training rooms, mobility storage areas, a mobility pallet build-up area, and locker rooms.

While it’s not a fancy building and the architecture tends toward the functional, this is a solid, thoughtful facility that earned LEED points in every category including sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy & atmosphere, materials & resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation & design process.

If you go to the US Green Building Council [www.USGBC.org] you will find:  “Overall, government owned or occupied buildings make up 27% of all LEED projects.  Federal buildings account for 450 certified projects with over 3,600 currently in process.”  That’s a lot of buildings and a good trend toward energy efficiency, sustainability and quality buildings. 

Go to http://www.cshqa.com/designNews.php to learn about the sustainability details that earned LEED Gold.  Learn more about our design/build partner at www.sbjames.com

(Photo credit:  Steve Johnson, Visual Images Gallery)

Surprise Tenant Enjoys Sustainable Design



Canadian geese make a home on Boise rooftop


The Mulvanney Medical Office Building on the St. Alphonsus Hospital campus has a surprise tenant.  This mother goose, oblivious to the stir she is creating inside the building, has settled in with a nest of native grasses and down feathers on the 2nd floor rooftop garden just two feet from the office of the building supervisor.  Our Dave Davies was on site for a tenant improvement project and took this photo through the window.  The reflective coating on the exterior of the windows may explain why she isn't bothered by the crowd.

Designed by CSHQA landscape architect Kyle Hemley, ASLA, the garden of native and low water plants is one of the sustainable design features that led to LEED Gold for the project.   The grasses are wearing their fall haircut and will begin to green up and grow in a month or so.  By that time the four eggs now in the nest will hopefully have become four baby goslings. 

Green Globes for Green Grocers



Restaurant Style Kitchen in Whole Foods Market



Since 2007 CSHQA has designed five new stores for Whole Foods Market in Utah, Colorado, and Idaho (and counting).  All five earned two or three Green Globes, the most recent coming just two days after the grand opening of the Boise, Idaho store!

Yes, we are proud of it, and we and the owner worked hard to get there.  Both of our businesses have made sustainable practices a part of our business model, including the pursuit of practical and applicable design and product knowledge.  At the same time I can tell you it’s totally within reach:  Good, sustainable design will earn two Green Globes.  Extra innovation, particularly in energy systems, can push a project up to three. 

It’s not routine.  Every store is a little different and we’re learning from each one.  One major challenge is mitigating the intensive energy consumption of cooking appliances and exhaust fans found in multiple restaurant style prep lines.  From an energy perspective, Whole Foods could be considered a restaurant with a grocery store.  Neither LEED nor Green Globes is quite adept at merging the two.  Every point earned elsewhere works to counterbalance the ‘oven’ effect.  Even the single points for bicycle repair stations (no kidding!) for Boulder, Colorado and Boise helped us in the end.

Here are lessons learned from five successive stores:

• Get everyone engaged from day one, including the contractor and subcontractors.
• Start at the beginning with good, sustainable design.
• Leverage your best assets – indoor air quality, recycling during construction, materials selection, daylighting, native landscaping. 
• Strive to manage the most difficult aspects – energy and water consumption.
• Take advantage of unique opportunities – aka challenges.
• Attend to your paperwork – Projects may be assessed as soon as construction is substantially complete, provided the paperwork and calculations are complete.
• Extra efforts do pay off!  –