We are pleased to announce that evolveEA was recently certified as a Woman Business Enterprise (WBE) by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.

evolveEA is leading a team of graduate students (MS3) in a semester long inquiry exploring two of our region’s communities as they transition toward a more sustainable and (hopefully) prosperous future. Similar to evolveEA’s approach to Buildings in Operation and benchmarking investigations, evolveEA and the Slippery Rock University team will perform a deep analysis of each community’s demographics and sustainability initiatives; while gauging progress across a number of metrics and indicators. This Community engagement study will explore the potential for sustainable development in Oberlin OH, and Pittsburgh PA; two communities which differ greatly, but are pursuing paths toward a more sustainable future. We’ll try to uncover how a metropolis of three million and college town of eight thousand might learn from each other as each faces unique challenges and opportunities.

We are proud to announce that evolveEA’s Cole Williams was chosen to participate in a Green Building Group Study Exchange Program this coming May in Seoul, South Korea. The program, organized and funded by the Rotary Foundation, brings a team of architects and designers from Seoul to Pittsburgh and then participants from Pittsburgh will focus on green building and development while in Seoul.

Cole thanks the McCandless Rotary Club, who will sponsor his trip to Seoul. He looks forward to this opportunity to share green building knowledge with peers and learn about Seoul’s advancements in green building firsthand. We are excited to hear all about his experience!

Last weekend representatives from evolveEA met with Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Ms. Sutley is principal environmental policy advisor to the President and was in Pittsburgh to learn about the successes and challenges facing the state of green building in our region. We described Pittsburgh’s role as an early green building leader and challenges discussed ranged from combined sewer overflow to incentives for renewable energy.

We learned that the Obama Administration has repeatedly tried to get all G-8 and G-20 nations to eliminate their own fossil fuel subsidies to no avail. The Federal Government has begun awarding energy service contracts, which reward efficiency over consumption. The Department of Defense has been providing leadership on energy and emissions; most of the logistics chain in Afganistan, for instance, is related to the transfer of energy. DOE Secretary Chu is performing long term planning in his quadrennial review of the DOE. Clean air was discussed, as the EPA is implementing mercury standards for power plants and related air quality, as the the average plant in the US is 43 years old.

Efficiency programs on the residential and commercial side were described, with programs such as Recovery to Retrofit, Energy Star, Better Buildings Initiative, Sunshine Initiative, Smart Communities and Executive Order 13514. Research for clean energy, renewable energy and smart communities are being worked on by DOT, HUD and DOE.  Fuel economy standards have been developed and adopted with the cooperation of the auto makers. Combined sewer overflow in Southwest PA will be a $5-10B problem, but the EPA has not been supporting green infrastructure as a sole solution; Milwaukee exists as a successful case study.

The meeting was hosted by the Green Building Alliance in Pittsburgh. Other attendees included Davitt Woodwell (Pennsylvania Environmental Council), Bill Bates (Chair of the Green Building Alliance), Malik Bankston (Kingsley Center), Marijke Hecht (Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy), Ashton Giles (City of Pittsburgh) and Joy Braunstein (Rachel Carson Homestead).

evolveEA’s Christine Mondor will speak at a Green Building Alliance event addressing the DLCC’s green features, performance, and operations, past, present, and future. evolveEA led the project team that analyzed the convention center’s performance as an innovative green building. Christine will highlight the challenges and triumphs in this effort that’s sure to have significant implications for the Pittsburgh region and for the convention center industry.

Pre-registration for this event is recommended. Time and location are as follows:
Hall A
David L. Lawrence Convention Center
1000 Fort Duquesne Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
November 10, 2011
7:30 am – 10:00 am

See the Green Building Alliance event page for registration and more information.

Daniel Klein has joined evolveEA as Communication Designer and will be leading the firm’s emphasis on visualizing information to help companies and communities make better decisions for their future. Daniel has developed a savvy, conceptual design methodology working in fields from fine arts to corporate consulting and his creating thinking, technical skill and leadership experience will inform projects across the full spectrum of media. His key areas of focus are information graphics, brand development, environmental graphics, publication design and social media.

Daniel is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s Communication Design program and has over ten years of experience in the United States and abroad. As the creative lead for a DC based futures consulting firm, Daniel strengthened the firm’s global presence, developing its in-house design studio in Tel Aviv. While in Israel, he also used his talents to benefit the community as a founding member of BreakOn, an urban art collective that reclaimed unused spaces as exhibition venues for emerging artists.

“Daniel’s talents and strategic thinking will help our clients tell their stories and analyze their data at a new level. His experience with future’s thinking and collaborative creativity will enable a new level to the sustainability dialogue and help make strategic thinking easier and more accessible,” said Christine Mondor, AIA and Principal of evolveEA.

To demonstrate the value of infographics, Daniel has published an example as part of his first blog post on the evolveEA website.

Praising our Living City Masterplan project, AIA Pittsburgh presented evolveEA with an Urban Design Honor Award at its 2011 Design Pittsburgh Gala. While the masterplan addresses issues that many post-industrial communities are facing, direct community engagement helped us shape the plan in ways that build upon the local culture and uniqueness of the Larimer and Homewood neighborhoods. In collaboration with each community, evolveEA articulated an ecodistrict design method where energy independence, net zero water use, and localized food economies create a new vision for more resilient neighborhoods that attract and sustain development.

The  project outlines an inspiring combination of innovative ideas and practical steps along a timeline to measure progress. The recognition from AIA demonstrates the value that strategic urban planning can offer to communities and cities nationwide. Most of the principles outlined in our plan can be applied in communities everywhere; evolveEA is helping them imagine their potential and fulfill it with practical short- and long-term goals.

evolveEA is proud to announce that Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture) will be officially honoring us with a Green Power:  Turn It On! Award!

The award, which is part of the larger Green Power:  Turn It On! Campaign, is meant to recognize individuals and organizations for their work in promoting the clean energy economy in Pennsylvania.  The Green Power:  Turn It On! Campaign is a multifaceted, multiyear campaign aimed at building the renewable energy market in PA.

We are receiving the award because of our commitment to sustainability, the reduction of our carbon pollution, and the purchase of 100% wind electricity for our office.  As a mission driven firm, we find every opportunity to reduce our activities’ impacts on the future health of our environment.  To evaluate the impact of our operations, we performed a carbon inventory for 2009 as a base year (see http://www.evolveea.com/work/carbon-neutrality for more info), which has led us to take steps reduce our energy usage and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as much as possible, purchase 100% renewable electricity, and buy carbon offsets for all remaining GHG emissions.  We have made an ongoing commitment to carbon neutrality.  We can do it, and so can you.

The luncheon and awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, October 27 from 12 – 2 p.m. at the Fairmont Pittsburgh.  For more information, please see PennFuture’s web link.

We’re beginning a community design process with Pittsburgh Parks to design a new treehouse in Pittsburgh’s largest park, Frick Park. We are hosting public charrettes, and we need community members and children to help us generate ideas.

Sign up here: http://www.pittsburghparks.org/naturespace

Kid-Centric Meeting
Thursday April 28 5:30 – 7:30p

Colfax Elementary School, 2332 Beechwood Boulevard

The Parks Conservancy is developing design concepts for the first of Frick Park’s outdoor learning spaces. We need your input! This session is all about kids. We invite children, parents, and teachers to join us for a fun, hands-on session where we’ll learn what kids would love to see in the park. Space is limited, and a light dinner will be provided.

Site Visit at Frick Park
Thursday June 2 5:30 – 7:30p

Frick Environmental Center, 2005 Beechwood Boulevard

Everyone is welcome at this outdoor session, where we’ll be visiting the location of the treehouse and asking everyone for their ideas. Following this activity, the project team will begin to develop design concepts.

Design Concept and Feedback
Thursday, July 28, 5:30 – 7:30p

Location TBD

At this public meeting, the project team will unveil a preliminary design for the treehouse, and community members can provide feedback. We’ll have an activity room for kids while the parents attend the meeting.

Hope to see you there!

We’ll be participating in a few great upcoming conferences. Almost the whole office will be participating! Hope to see you there.

March 25-27
Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon: Biodiversity and Environmental Justice

Living Cities
Presentation by Christine Mondor.

April 3
PennFuture’s 2011 SW Pennsylvania Global Warming Conference

Presentation by Christine Mondor.

April 7
Build Pittsburgh

The Pros and Cons of Pro Bono: How to Make It Work for You
Presented by Christine Mondor.

The Future of Sustainability Rating Systems
Moderated by Marc Mondor, with Joseph Nagy as a panelist.

How Well Should Your Building Perform?
Moderated by David Deal.

Getting to Net-Zero Energy
Moderated by Marc Mondor.

April 10-12
Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation’s Engineering Sustainability Conference

Situating Place within Organizational Sustainability: Why Buildings Matter – or don’t
Presented by Steve Hockley and David Deal.

Building Up to Organizational Sustainability
Presented by Christine Mondor.

April 12
Delaware Valley Green Building Council LEED Course

Implementing the Interior Design + Construction LEED Rating System
Presented by Marc Mondor.

This month, we are featured in the Pittsburgh AIA’s Columns Magazine. They did a great profile of our office space and our interest in co-location, mobile technology, collaboration, carbon neutrality, and the great neighborhood of Friendship.

Thanks Columns!

Habitat, Columns Magazine [PDF]

Marc Mondor speaks to the Pittsburgh Business Times in this week’s article on Pittsburgh’s drop on the green cities index.

Now Hiring: Key Leadership Positions in Pittsburgh
Tracy Certo, Pop City

Paradigm shift
“Although the extent of leadership change may be disturbing, there is a great opportunity for new and more effective alignments to emerge from the changes,” says Christine Mondor, board chair of the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh which has just launched a search for a CEO/executive director.

“To have so many great minds thinking about the strategic future of their organization is a powerful thing for the region, ” she notes. “And we’re more open to new ideas and new people than ever before. That’s what will bring in top talent. We will look back in five years and recognize a shift in paradigm.”

Mondor has already heard from quite a few people outside the region interested in the position. “They know enough about the city to be really interested in coming back.”

This year, we teamed up with the Green Building Alliance to sponsor local winners of the USGBC’s Natural Talent Design Competition. Two projects won, including a team led by Cathy Chung, Brian Kish and Christian Wagner, as well as an individual project by Wui Joon Ha. Joon’s project, E.A.S.Y. House, was one of the two student finalist projects. Congrats Joon!

Competition info:
USGBC’s 2010 Natural Design Competition, in partnership with Salvation Army’s EnviRenew Initiative, is focused on the rebuilding effort in New Orleans. Competitors will be divided into students and emerging professionals groups and will design a LEED for Homes project that is priced affordably and is functional for elderly occupants. Up to four designs will be selected from the local competition finalists to be showcased at Greenbuild 2010 and, for the first time, the designers will see their projects built in New Orleans’ Broadmoor neighborhood. Once the homes are built, they will enter a measurement and verification phase in which they will be graded on energy efficiency, water reuse, and indoor air quality among other categories. The design team whose home performs best during measurement and verification will be awarded the final grand prize in 2011.

Think Like Your Customers: Stray Cats, Sustainable Design, and Small Business

By Shawn Graham, Fast Company Expert Blog
Thursday, September 9, 2010

If you have or have had a pet, raise your hand. If you’ve ever taken said pet to the vet, keep your hand raised. Close your eyes. I want you to visualize the waiting room. Do you picture a standard reception counter with Formica top, 5-6 pleather chairs with metal legs, a small table with a generous supply of Cat Fancy, Fido Friendly magazines, and the smell of Pine-Sol wafting through the air? Whether you’re a dog, cat, ferret, iguana, or their owner, as a customer I think it’s safe to say most veterinarian waiting rooms are not a place you’d like to spend an extended period of time.
I recently had a chance to meet with the cofounders of evolveEA, an architectural design firm with a passion for sustainability (who also helped create a really cool cubicle-less work space). And that’s when I learned about the work they did with the East End Veterinary Medical Center and how it completely flipped the clinic’s customer experience on its ear. Instead of going with the same cookie cutter space (see above), they spent the time to really think about the experience of the customers (both human and animal) from the time they walked in the front door. That’s why you’ll notice a fish tank placed strategically just under the cash register–a little treat to captivate small children and hungry cats alike. Not to mention the fact that staring at a fish tank might also help to take a little bit of the edge off when you’re nervously waiting to see the doctor to exam an ailing pet.

And beyond just the visual appeal, they also thought strategically about how they could make their practice more sustainable. How many small businesses, especially veterinary clinics, look for opportunities to use Low VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) paint, recycled steel wall studs, recycled drywall, and low flow faucets to help reduce their environmental footprint?

If you haven’t asked your customers for input on your reception area and looked for opportunities to make your work space a little easier on the environment (whether you’re a huge company like Bank of America or a small family business), it’s time. Or you can stock up on back issues of Fido Friendly magazine and miss out on an opportunity to, through strategic sustainable design, build a following of loyal (and happy) customers. The choice is yours.

“PITTSBURGH, Feb 28–The Mosites Company and The Design Alliance Architects have announced that Building C—the Borders Books building in the Eastside retail development in East Liberty, has been awarded the LEED Core and Shell Gold Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) www.usgbc.org. Rick Fedrizzi, the President, CEO and Founding Chairman of the USGBC, the organization responsible for the LEED program, will present the LEED Core and Shell Gold Certification plaque to The Mosites Company at Borders Books, the anchor tenant in the building, on March 4, 2008 at 2:00 pm.  Mr. Fedrizzi is in town to give the keynote speech on Wednesday at the Green Building Alliance’s annual Green$ense conference, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.  Rebecca Flora, Executive Director of the Green Building Alliance in Pittsburgh www.gbapgh.org and USGBC Chair, will also participate in the award ceremony.  Along with the building anchored by PNC Bank, which provided the majority of the financing, this is the second building at Eastside to be LEED certified.”

“A lot of good design decisions don’t follow the LEED matrix,” admits Christine Mondor, AIA, LEED AP and principal of evolve environment :: architecture. She explains that her biggest fear is that LEED will be seen as a certificate so formulaic that it can be achieved without thinking outside the box and that there are projects that could push harder. She believes that LEED is really a great starting tool for discussion, but many of her clients have different motivations, especially in residential design.”

“Earn one point for abating and developing a brownfield site, two for recycling 75% of construction waste, and another point for providing two preferred parking places for hybrid cars. Welcome to the environmentally friendly game of green building.

These and many other potential credits are based on a formalized system developed by the US. Green Building Council which awards those doing either new construction or renovation with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification – in simpliest terms, anointing it a “green building.”

“Marc and Christine Mondor, two heads talking at once, are the corporate culture at evolve EA. Spouses, co-principals, warriors for cutting-edge Environmental Architecture, in their own quiet way the Mondors are propounding a new-century agenda, a revolution writ small. “We seek the Holy Grail of design,” Christine Mondor says: “affordable, contemporary, green.”
http://www.popcitymedia.com/features/40mondors.aspx

“To an architect, living in Pittsburgh is kind of like being a kid in a candy store. While solid-brick homes and rolling park landscapes may not whet your appetite, these assests taste like opportunity for Marc Mondor. He has a passion for sustainable architecture and “green” building and renovation. “We work with design and construction teams to create buildings and environments that are physically healthier and more energy- and resource-efficient. We spend a lot of time trying to eliminate waste and looking at underutilized capacity,” Mondor says, noting that what’s good for the planet is also good for the pocketbook. He was an early advocate for green building in Pittsburgh, and he and his wife, Christine, founded evolveEA. Mondor works on diverse projects including the new Giant Eagle in Shadyside, Eastside in East Liberty and university buildings. “We are among the greenest cities in terms of green buildings,” Mondor says of Pittsburgh. “A green building is healthier for the people who love or work in it. It’s a good neighbor.”

“Architect Marc Mondor, principal of the firm evolve and Friendship resident, understands the attraction. In fact, he says, “I don’t see why this wouldn’t be as desirable a place to be in as Squirrel Hill or Shadyside.”

“Evolve Environment :: Architecture enters the awards with the evolvehouse, a prototype for sustainable living: an elegant and compact living structure beneath a butterfly roof. Here, mechanical systems, material selection and solar orientation are aspects essential to an overall approach of environmental conscientiousness. In addition to the necessity of seeing this sort of work earn recognition, it will be exciting to see this project advance to construction, perhaps in numerous iterations, as sustainable design continues to be a prominent force in the Pittsburgh built environment.”

“Marc Mondor, a principal architect with evolve EA in Pittsburgh, stands on the green roof of a Giant Eagle grocery store in the city’s Shadyside neighborhood. Mondor was a consultant with the supermarket chain in the renovation of the existing building to meet green design standards.”

” As an environmental consultant who launched his own firm last year, Marc Mondor is growing a business by helping clients understand comparative shades of green.

That would be both the financial kind and the kind that helps in small ways to preserve the environment. “

“Part of that team was Marc Mondor, LEED consultant, who practices at evolve Environmental Architecture in Pittsburgh; he was also a consultant on the Giant Eagle in Brunswick, the country’s first LEED rated supermarket, covered in these pages in the November 2004 issue. “This project went well because of the united mindset of all the participants,” says Mondor.”