North Texas Sustainable Showcase

On July 24th, AIA Dallas, USGBC North Texas and CSI Dallas Chapter held the 8th annual North Texas Sustainable Showcase. Over the years, the showcase has taken a deeper dive into the web of sustainability, but this year we pulled back to explore more of what was fresh and local. The day was packed full, I mean, jammed full of great information. The actual event had 3 morning sessions, a keynote speaker at lunch and 4 afternoon sessions.

In the morning, we started off with an overview of what’s happening in the industry with regard to sustainability and high performance buildings. Mary Dickinson, Assoc. AIA, with Perkins + Will explained the Architecture 2030 Challenge and how you and your firm can participate. She also plugged our four-session series, the AIA Dallas COTE Sustainability and High Performance Building Series, which has two more sessions in August and October. (REGISTER NOW!) Following Mary, Chris Mundell, AIA, with Gensler gave a great presentation on the changes that we are seeing in the building rating systems and codes. Bottom line is, it's always changing! Kirk Teske, FAIA, with HKS ended our morning sessions with a presentation on high performance building design. He described how creating a culture and design process focused on aligning the needs of investors, community, and the earth can create purposeful and high performing architecture.

Ron Rochon, FAIA, managing partner at the Miller Hull Partnership was our keynote speaker. He was the partner-in-charge of the Bullitt Center project in Seattle, Washington, arguably the world’s most sustainable, green commercial building to date. The Bullitt Center is undergoing the Living Building Challenge certification.

The afternoon sessions kicked off with some local advocacy. David Matiella, Advocacy Chair for Texas USGBC Chapters brought us up to speed on what is happening in the legislature. Then, Chris Lander and Scott West gave us the best tools and techniques for getting the information you really want in the energy modeling process. To end the day, we had two panel discussions—the first featuring Zaida Basora, FAIA, City of Dallas Assistant Director, Taylor Hollingshead, City of Addison Stormwater / Sustainability Program Manager, David Matiella, UT San Antonio Professor, and Chris Mundell, Gensler to discuss where the codes are going in relation to sustainability at the state level.  We ended the day with the client perspective on the future of sustainability from Mike Rosamond, Executive Vice-President at KDC and  Zad Roumaya, Buzzworks and the moderator was Jonathan Kraatz, USGBC Executive Director. And the good news is...clients like high performance buildings—because high performance equals money saved.

Stay tuned...the North Texas Sustainable Showcase will be back next year!