Saturday, January 23, 2010 Terry Kilbourne and I attended the Grand Opening of the Harvey Rice Public Library. The library was designed by Bostwick Design Partnership in Cleveland, Ohio. The project is designed to reach the LEED Silver Certification level for sustainable design practices. The building was well received by the staff and the community who attended the opening celebration.
BDP designed a wonderful building that welcomes visitors. Starting with the huge glass windows that allow people to see what’s happening inside, with the wood ceiling and beams to the tile mosaic “blankets” on the benches out front under the large tree, the building draws people in. The use of wood and brick add warmth to the white walls that create the lobby and office spaces. Beautiful artwork add splashes of color throughout.
Tec contributed the electrical engineering, lighting design, and building commissioning services. We were thrilled to collaborate with BDP on this project that will change landscape of the community for years to come.
image from: www.udll.com
Last year I was approached with a rare opportunity to be part of a very unique team for the Universal Design Living Laboratory.
What makes the project unique is that is being built from the ground up with the facets of universal design as the main unifying factor for all disciplines involved. Not only that, but, it is also going to be a “living laboratory”, meaning open for guests to tour and better understand the goals of universal design. The project Owners are Rosemarie Rosetti and Mark Leder. Rosemarie suffered a spinal cord injury years ago leaving here in a wheelchair and since then has devoted herself to speaking out to the world on universal design.
As a Lighting Designer, what does Universal Deign mean to me? Small things that can be a big impact to the ease of someone living there, like locating switches and receptacles within reach of anyone in a wheelchair. Think about the kitchen and how you might reach a light switch located over a standard height/width countertop if you were in a wheelchair. By keeping the goal of the space in mind, we were able to make small adjustments that will hugely impact the owner. We made sure light fixtures were fully shielded and won’t provide higher angles of glare to those in seated positions. We specified light switches and dimmers with larger buttons or paddle style switches for ease of use for anyone with limited tactile ability. These are all pretty simple things to accomplish, if you think about it.
Along the basis of more thoughtful design, the Owners then decided to also build green. The house is hoping for a LEED Gold rating . Within that avenue, we are tackling new ground through the integration of newly developed LED products. I have tested dozens here in my office to determine what will actually work and feel appropriate to a residential living space and meet our energy goals. I had a lot of reasons for looking at LED vs. fluorescent, most were not energy efficiency related, rather lighting quality related. Out goals were to achieve the “instant on” when a switch is turned on, rather than deal with the warm up time of compact fluorescent products. It is also allowing us an opportunity to dim with a fuller dimming curve then the fluorescent would have allowed and hopefully provide a much longer lamp life. Along their energy goals, we are hoping to power the exterior lighting with photovoltaic panels. It has been a great opportunity to embrace current design trends and see how far we can go.
Ground-breaking was September 23, 2009 and much of the framing is already in place.
I have not been alone working on this project, I wanted to note that, along with Tec, the Universal Design Living Laboratory has over 100 corporate sponsors who see the value this project has to offer the public. If you get a chance, stop by the website at www.udll.com to see the progress made so far and those involved.
The January 2009 Lighting Design + Application (LD+A) is available
now. Check out the Progress Report for information of accepted
products, publications, and applications of progressive and innovative
new technology. I serve
on the committee that reviewed over 250 submissions this year. The
committee’s mission is to keep in touch with developments in the art
and science of lighting throughout the world.
“The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES) is the
recognized technical authority on illumination. For over 100 years; its
objective has been to communicate information on all aspects of good
lighting practice to its members, to the lighting community, and to
consumers, through a variety of programs, publications, and services.”