By Alice Schultz, AIA
Discipline Director - Facilities
Jones Edmunds joined the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) in 2003 and plans to integrate the USGBC’s signature program, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), as much as possible into its Facilities design work. Joining the USGBC was natural for Jones Edmunds, with our strong environmental heritage, incorporating sustainable design principals into our building engineering just seems like the right thing to do.
The LEED program is recognized as an industry benchmark of sustainable design, and has been integrated to the design of industrial facilities by providing a checklist with specific goals to reduce energy consumption through cost-effective energy measures. All design solutions trade off advantages in cost for function and longevity, and LEED embraces the attitude of life-cycle costs, with preference for those components of the building shell and systems that will be the best choice for sustainable construction.
Increasingly, American designers and constructors are pressed to take more responsibility in reducing waste and reusing energy as state and federal agencies are being required to take the responsibility of improving its energy management, saving taxpayer dollars, reducing emissions that contribute to air pollution and global climate change.
With this responsibility come inherent challenges in addressing the seemingly competing interests of improving the building envelope and maintaining system performance while keeping costs affordable. The charrette has become a more frequent forum for engaging the architect, engineers, owner, and contractor in strategizing. For a building to achieve LEED certification, its design must include calculations and procedures that the contractor needs to substantiate and document during construction. Building systems commissioning will record the actual performance, confirming or contradicting proposed credits.
In the engineering services provided to its clientele, Jones Edmunds routinely confers with the Owner’s stakeholders. Key personnel from Master Planning, Environmental Service, Fire Rescue, Safety, and Security are engaged during the design phase to ensure that requirements are successfully incorporated. Projects striving for LEED certification require similar coordination with the facility Users, Operators, and Maintenance personnel.
Successful design strategies that meet LEED certification require synergy and may depend upon consensus among diverse entities. Architecture satisfies the Owner’s expectations for function, maintenance, and aesthetic. LEED delivery incorporates solutions into integrated systems. For designs with funding limitations, consensus requires compromise. Design teams need to be flexible in incorporating innovative strategies, or LEED credit points may be limited.
Investing in architecture gives the best payback. Jones Edmunds Facilities Mechanical Designer Rob Warrington works with software models in Visual DOE to compare the impacts of various building envelopes and mechanical systems. Project Architect Jim Welkenbach creates a building information model (BIM) using Autodesk’s Architectural Desktop, exporting detailed data for construction cost estimating as well as calculations of recycled content of materials.
By implementing a LEED design in building standards, companies and organizations have a state-of-the-art design that can also include sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.
If you have any questions, please contact Alice Schultz, AIA, at aschultz@jonesedmunds.com or visit www.usgbc.org.
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Employee Spotlight
For nearly eight years, Rich Koller has been working on innovative projects and collaborating with Jones Edmunds’ clients, such as NASA, FDEP’s Bureau of Design and Construction, and local Florida communities. Koller’s strong civil and environmental engineering background, project management experience, and commitment to clients, helped him work his way from an early start as a project engineer in 1998 to becoming the Gainesville Assistant Office Manager in 2004, and eventually the Titusville Office Manager in January 2005.
In his role as the Titusville Office Manager, Koller supports the firm’s Facilities design group, which includes mechanical, electrical, and structural engineers, as well as architects and construction professionals. Koller also provides depth to the Titusville Office’s growing civil engineering discipline, which provides stormwater, transportation, utilities and environmental design services to Jones Edmunds clients throughout Florida.
“It’s an incredible opportunity and I feel very fortunate,” Koller said of his position. “Jones Edmunds has provided me with a lot of growth opportunity, and this position is a responsibility that I take very seriously.”
The Jones Edmunds Titusville office first opened in April 1998 and grew to its present size of 30 professionals working on numerous NASA and Spaceport projects, as well as State, County, and City projects. Koller credits Wally Schroeder, P.E., Vice President and one of the founding members of the firm’s Titusville location, with the growth and enthusiasm of the office.
“I’m very impressed with the level of talent in the Titusville office,” he said. “There’s a lot of energy and the employees are very committed to our clients.”
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Client Spotlight:NASA-KSC
Thirteen years ago, Jones Edmunds earned the opportunity to express its passion for the nation’s space program when they were awarded several civil and environmental engineering projects with NASA-KSC. Most recently, the firm was awarded NASA’s third on-board contract for continuing engineering services.
“The work associated with our nation’s space program is some of the most challenging and interesting work available for engineers and architects. We feel deeply privileged to be part of the space community team,” said Bob Edmunds, one of the Company’s founders.
Jones Edmunds’ commitment and innovation is demonstrated in part by its efforts with NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) South Wetlands Stormwater Management System. A plan was developed to rehydrate an existing wetland that had been drained in the 1960s. Rather than use the valuable real estate surrounding the VAB complex, the engineering team at Jones Edmunds put together a plan to eliminate the need for a dry retention pond and create a natural wetland. The project was the first of its kind in the St. Johns River Water Management District and was featured in Florida Water Resources Journal.
In addition to the work done at the VAB complex, Jones Edmunds performed an ecological assessment and flagged jurisdictional wetlands based on a combination of soil vegetation conditions with the Space Life Science Laboratory site. Jones Edmunds rehydrated the wetland area and minimized project costs associated with wetland mitigation using an innovative stormwater system design that achieves the required water quality standards of the downstream receiving water.
For the past nine years Jones Edmunds has served as NASA-KSC’s on-board firm for civil and environmental engineering services. Jones Edmunds has served other Spaceport clients, including Space Gateway Support, SGT, Inc., the Florida Space Authority, ASRC, Dynacs, the US Army Corp of Engineers/45th Space Wing, and the Delaware North Park Service.
“It has been a sincere privilege to serve NASA and the Space Coast with our consulting services and community involvement,” said Wally Schroeder, P.E., Spaceport Client Coordinator and Vice President of Jones Edmunds.
2005/2006 Legislative Update
By Nan Brown
· On June 23, 2005, the United States Supreme Court provided a ruling in Kelo v. New London, holding that, when as part of a comprehensive economic development plan a local government condemns private property to transfer it to another private party to enhance the tax base and provide jobs, such a taking is a public purpose permissible under the Federal Constitution, even without a finding of blight. As part of the majority opinion, the Court noted that nothing in their opinion precludes any State from placing further restrictions on its exercise of takings power.
· A recent press release issued by Charlie Crist, Attorney General of Florida, states: “Florida’s Constitution, as interpreted by the courts, and Florida statutory law provide greater protection of private property rights than either the U.S. Constitution or Connecticut law. Under Florida law, only if property is designated as a blighted area can it be taken through the extraordinary power of eminent domain for redevelopment, and then only if it would primarily serve a public purpose.”
- Florida House Speaker Allan Bense has appointed a select committee to study whether more protection should be written into the Florida Statutes to protect the rights of private property owners. Three legislative bills have been filed for consideration in the 2006 Florida Legislative session: Florida Senate Bill 20(Senator Jones) – identical to Florida House Bill 31 (Representative Rice); and Florida Senate Bill 134 (Senator Bennett).
Nan Brown is a legislative and funding specialist with Jones Edmunds. She is based in Tallahassee, Fla.
For more information, contact Nan Brown in Tallahassee at nanbrown9@comcast.net or Terri Lowery at tlowery@jonesedmunds.com.
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