We make buildings perform betterby providing a whole-building approach to design and construction

To help the District achieve its ambitious climate commitments, create jobs, and grow its economy, the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT), under the leadership of Mayor Muriel Bowser, has developed a new High-Performance Building Hub to provide critical hands-on assistance to the District’s real estate community and building industry professionals affected by the law. Steven Winter Associates Inc., as well as ARUP, the Building Energy Exchange, and New Buildings Institute completed a needs assessment of the specific training, capacity buildings, support, and technical assistance needs of the District’s building owners and the consultants they rely on; such as architects, contractors, facility managers, property managers, and real estate brokers.

SWA team members attended the Building of Excellence Awards, where seven SWA projects were awarded. NYSERDA’s Buildings of Excellence competition incentivizes innovative multifamily projects that aim to achieve near- to net-zero carbon emissions through design, construction, and operation.
The competition, which was started by Governor Cuomo in support of the Green New Deal, has a $40M award pool to be distributed throughout three rounds.

This webinar will examine the unique considerations of building enclosure design for wood-frame multi-family and commercial projects. It will break enclosure design into its main control layer topics: cladding systems, moisture protection, thermal control and air barriers. Each of these control layers will be addressed, including product options, assembly and detailing strategies, continuity, inspections, and how each control layer affects the others. Participants can expect to gain a deeper understanding of the guiding principles of enclosure design, the variety of products, assemblies and details that can achieve desired performance, and the construction phase know-how to ensure that pen and paper details translate to real-world results.

While health has always been a part of sustainability, exciting new data (and some scary findings) are driving rapid change to a health-motivated perspective in the green buildings industry. Most building scientists and green building consultants are not public health experts, but a variety of tools exist in the marketplace that can help translate building strategies into positive health outcomes. This session is designed to empower people who ‘only speak buildings’ to start ‘speaking human health’ today, using the best parts of tools available.

As code requirements become more stringent around the country, the process of commissioning is more valuable now than ever before. Acting as third-party quality assurance providers, commissioning agents help building owners by improving the quality of construction and reducing maintenance and energy costs in the long run.

On this episode, Robb interviews podcast co-host, Kelly Westby, who is also SWA’s Commissioning Director. Kelly explains the importance of quality control on any project and describes how commissioning has evolved into a process, rather than a one-off measure.

To reach the city-wide goal of reducing total carbon emissions by 80% before 2050, buildings will need to meet specific emissions targets defined by their use type. Owners that do not meet their targets will incur potentially substantial fines beginning in 2025. In this webinar, Marc Zuluaga, CEO at SWA, shares how Local Law 97 and other green-focused regulations will impact your buildings - and your bottom line.