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Frederick Ward Associates Makes Holiday Donation With The Help of Luna’s House
Thursday, January 6th, 2011
Once again the holidays have brought together a cadre of good-natured people, organizations and companies to share goodwill to the community. Through the efforts of a volunteer at Luna’s House, Frederick Ward Associates and students of Future Link made donations to the Chesapeake Cancer Alliance (CCA) and the Child Advocacy Center of Harford County.
On November 26-28 the Chesapeake Cancer Alliance (CCA) hosted the Festival of Trees at the Reckord Armory, where many organizations donated decorated Christmas trees for auction, with proceeds to benefit the CCA. The CCA is dedicated to raising funds for cancer prevention, research education and treatment for citizens of Harford County and Maryland.
Deb Comstock, a volunteer for Luna’s House and a teacher in the Future Link program at Harford County Schools organized the creation of one very special Christmas tree. It was decorated by the students of Future Link, a program of the Harford County Schools for young adults 18-21 years of age with special needs. All of the ornaments were handmade, representing animals available through Luna’s House. Luna’s House is a non-profit animal rescue organization preparing to open a state-of-the-art shelter, care and education facility in Edgewood, MD.
Craig Ward, President of Frederick Ward Associates, was the winning bidder for the Luna’s House tree. He then donated the tree to the Harford County Child Advocacy Center in Bel Air to help bring some holiday cheer to a social service agency that often deals with less fortunate children.
ESteere
Community
Community, Frederick Ward Associates
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Frederick Ward Associates Builds a “Cool Roof” at Local Elementary School
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
Last week, Frederick Ward Associates’ President, Craig A. Ward, and several members of the firms Architecture Department participated in a ribbon cutting that highlighted the new energy efficient roof on the Ring Factory Elementary School. The new roof is not only Energy Star rated by the U.S. Department of Energy, but it is also a “cool roof”. The Harford County Government and the Board of Education partnered in funding the new roof, which also received federal grants. The grant was received from the USDOE, funded through The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
‘Cool roofs’ reflect solar radiation, reduce the heat conducted into buildings and directly reduce air-conditioning use. Frederick Ward Associates was the architecture firm selected to design the replacement of the school’s fiberglass asphalt shingled roof with a fully adhered 60 mil PVC roof with decorative PVC extrusions that emulates the look of a a standing seam metal roof.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Star website advises that solar reflectance is the most important characteristic of a roof product in terms of yielding the highest energy savings during warmer months. The higher the solar reflectance, the more efficient the product is in reflecting sunlight and heat away from the building and reducing roof temperature. Frederick Ward Associates’ sustainable roof design will contribute to increased energy cost savings at Ring Factory Elementary.
ESteere
Community, Frederick Ward, Sustainability
Community, Frederick Ward Associates, Sustainability
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Redevelopment is the Answer?
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
The development economy has been suffering for several years now and financial pundits are not yet predicting the real upturn. There have been a few upticks to tease us along the way, but the real resurgence of lending, building and buying has not started yet. Most of the current work in the marketplace is institutional or governmental, with a few user-specific private developments in the mix. With lending being held in the vised grip of post TARP institutions, prospectors and developers have to be more creative to find the most promising investment tools that provide good return on investment, and then they need to find the users that can finance the use of the building or development. A difficult task when there are so many empty spaces on the market. So where do we find the hottest opportunities? Maybe redevelopment is the answer.
Redevelopment Opportunities
Redevelopment requires certain ingredients from the start, such as an existing or former use and improvements, existing infrastructure, such as road and utilities, existing impervious surfaces and “engineered” drainage, and public perception of a previously disturbed natural space. These ingredients often occur in urbanized or industrial locations, where the economic climate changed at some time and left the space for greener pastures, or to new spaces that offer more efficient production. Perhaps the space is still used, but not efficiently, operating as a burden on the community by wasting energy and causing unnecessary impacts to the natural environment or the surrounding community. Perhaps the right redevelopment opportunity is an existing residential community that is suffering from deferred maintenance, and would be less expensive to replace than repair.
Additional Redevelopment Elements
In any case, the ingredients of redevelopment opportunities are typical elements of a new development plan that the developer would assume to have to pay for, design and construct. So right off the top, the project pro forma excludes some access and utility costs, offsite road construction, etc. For stormwater management in Maryland there are lighter rules for redevelopment too. Another important element of redevelopment opportunities is market and demographics. Typically urbanized areas have more market opportunity for retail because the dollars live there and will shop there, if given the available opportunity.
Another underrepresented ingredient could be the availability of transit or some form of public transportation that may already exist in the communities of and surrounding redevelopment sites. In a tight economy when people are saving money any way they can, the use of transit is strong and thus the opportunity for transit-oriented development (TOD) is a win-win for new development. TOD is a lightning rod concept in many urbanized areas to help spark investment in otherwise stagnant or failing economies. This is where there appears to have a good return on investment for lenders and end users.
The attached article from the Urban Land Institute is an interview of five real estate experts from around the country discussing the hottest redevelopment opportunities, as they see them. http://urbanland.uli.org/Articles/2010/SeptOct/Nyren1
ESteere
Frederick Ward, Infrastructure
Frederick Ward Associates, Planning, Redevelopment, Urban Land Institute
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Frederick Ward Associates Clean Up Plumtree Run
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
Here at Frederick Ward Associates, we believe in investing in our community, and have recently adopted a stream for clean up. On May 22, we walked the Plumtree Run streambed to remove accessible trash and debris, with the permission of all the landowners and with support from the Town of Bel Air Public Works.
Plumtree Run originates in downtown Bel Air and meanders through the community to Atkisson Reservoir in Harford Glen. We have adopted the segment between George Street and the Upper Chesapeake Medical Campus.
This is the first stream adoption in our area, which uses similar principles as the Adopt-a-Highway and SWAT programs for roadside cleanup. The Frederick Ward Associate Environmental and Sustainability teams have coordinated this effort.
ESteere
Community, Frederick Ward, Sustainability
Environmental and Sustainability teams, Frederick Ward, Plumtree Run
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Military Leadership: It Also Applies to Business
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
In almost every business situation, good leadership is key to overall success. Here at Frederick Ward Associates, we have learned to take a note from military style leadership, knowing that it can apply to our own situations. Those in military situations find that good leadership can keep them alive, and while our decisions may not be life and death, good leadership can equal success on the business front.
What is leadership?
Leadership can mean different things to different groups, but “to lead” is generally defined as “to go before,” “to influence or induce,” or “to guide in direction, course, action, opinion, etc.”
Leadership is important because good leaders build strong relationships, which result in strong teams. That ultimately translates into achieving success, whether it is in meetings or working on a client project.
There are three basic leadership styles: Authoritarian, Participative and Delegative. The goal of a leader should be to incorporate all three styles into leading. Each have specific situations where, if used, are successful, and sometimes create failures. Each leader should reflect on their experiences to determine when each style was successful or not, and apply those reflections to future situations.
Key Ideas to Good Leadership
Whether it is in a military environment or a business environment, there are a few key ideas to good leadership:
- Leaders Plan
– Leaders Lead by Example
– Morale is Important
– Leaders are Moral and Ethical
– Leaders know their team
ESteere
Army/APG/BRAC, Frederick Ward
Frederick Ward, Leadership, Military
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