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Posts Tagged ‘Frederick Ward Associates’
« Older EntriesLuna’s House Wins Best Major Renovation
Saturday, January 29th, 2011
Frederick Ward Associates is proud to announce that Luna’s House Animal Care and Education Center won an award from The U.S. Green Building Council Maryland Chapter at their Annual Awards event on January 27, 2011. Luna’s House, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to bettering the lives of animals and their people, won the award for the best building in the Major Renovation category. FWA contributed Architecture and Landscape Architecture design, Project management, and LEED Consulting for Luna’s House. Check out photos from the event, which took place at the Thames Street Wharf in Baltimore, at the Chapter’s Flickr page.
A registered LEED For New Construction Project tracking LEED Silver, the Luna’s House project includes a 14,900 square foot adaptive reuse of a foreclosed car dealership on Route 40 in Edgewood, Maryland. The program includes a shelter, kennel, retail sales, and a clinic that will set a new standard for shelters and kennels in the area. It also includes an on-site residence for full-time staff. Sustainable features include a proposed dog park which will decrease the impervious surface ratio by creating half an acre of habitat, use of rain barrels, waterless urinals, HVAC units with energy recovery heat wheels, high efficiency water heaters and lighting, 95% reuse of the existing building structure, and diversion of 98% of construction waste from local landfills.
Luna’s House will add 5 to 7 full time positions to the job market in its first year of operation at the new facility. The purchase and rehabilitation of the facility will provide more than $2 million of stimulus to the local economy. Luna’s House will provide animal care education services, retail services, and animal adoption to the community as well. Visit the Luna’s House website for more information.
CCooper
Community
Community, Frederick Ward Associates
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Frederick Ward Associates Use Greenroads Checklist
Monday, January 10th, 2011
Last year, FWA blogged about the introduction of “Greenroads,” a program developed to improve the sustainability and lessen the environmental impact of highway projects. We were eager to see a new rating system developed for building sustainable roadways similar to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED system. The Frederick Ward Associates team of surveyors, planners, architects and engineers can use the Greenroads to measure the sustainability of the roadways we help build.
In September 2010, Civil Engineering magazine ran an article highlighting the big changes that are in store for road design and construction with the implementation of Greenroads. There’s no question highway construction is destructive to the environment. From the construction debris running off and poisoning groundwater, to serious fossil-fuel burning from the heavy machinery, author Laurie Shuster says, “For Mother Nature, it’s a losing battle.”
Greenroads hopes to help Mother Nature win the battle by implementing a scoring system that evaluates sustainability by seven key principles: ecology, economy, extent, expectations, experience and exposure. To satisfy these goals, a Greenroads project must meet 11 requirements and earn up to 108 “points” within 37 different voluntary credit categories as up to 10 points within the category that encompasses customer-designed voluntary credits. Read more about the seven principles and see the table of requirements and voluntary credits in Civil Engineering’s article.
Notably different from the LEED system is that activities that contribute to sustainability are weighed differently based on their potential to lead to greater sustainability. For example, using a pavement with an unusually long service life is weighed more heavily than fueling the construction vehicles with biodiesel. That’s because using biodiesel only has a one-time benefit while the pavement provides long-term benefit.
While Greenroads is still in development, some are already finding it helpful for roadway design. Frederick Ward Associates already implements many of Greenroads’ criteria and uses it as a checklist to evaluate current practices and to see what can be incorporated into future projects.
Learn more about Greenroads at their website.
EVanArsdale
Frederick Ward, Sustainability
Frederick Ward Associates, greenroads
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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 Applauds New Miss Utility Law
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
A new Maryland law went into effect October 1, 2010 that deals with how Miss Utility operates. Gov. Martin O’Malley actually signed Senate Bill 911 on May 20, 2010, which updated the Maryland Underground Facilities Damage Prevention Law. This new law is significant for design professionals such as Frederick Ward Associates.
Throughout the history of our industry, Miss Utility would not mark underground utilities for design purposes. The previous law focused on marking of utilities for excavation purposes only. The design profession needed to know where the location and depths are for underground utilities to provide for adequate designs that minimize the impacts to these existing utilities. This information is critical to the design process. And yet, the Miss Utility law previously did not permit markings for design purposes. As a way around this, many design professionals would conveniently arrange for soil borings to be conducted early in the process in order to show an attempt at excavation in order to have these markings take place. This circumvention of the approved processes was frustrating for Miss Utility.
Coupled with this was a federal evaluation on how individual states were performing in “locating and marking underground utilities”. It was reported that Maryland did not score very well in this evaluation. Hence, our state government set out to improve the program in Maryland.
So what does this mean for our design profession? The new law permits markings for the design industry. Now design professionals can contact Miss Utility to obtain a “design ticket” that is valid for 15 days and various utilities will be marked. Better yet, all of this can be tracked via online. This will make the design process much easier and more transparent for professionals like Frederick Ward Associates.
jmettee
Frederick Ward, Surveying
Frederick Ward Associates, land surveying
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What to Know Before You Commit To A Rooftop Solar Array
Monday, October 25th, 2010
If you’ve been thinking about renewable energy systems and want to take advantage of tax incentives, grants, and current pricing available for rooftop-mounted PV (photovoltaic) systems, there are several factors to consider before you act.
Have a comprehensive strategy that considers the roof membrane, type of Solar panel system, electricity generation, maintenance, and provisions for downtime.
Carefully review existing roof and future maintenance needs. The roof may possibly only last half as long as the PV system you’re about to install. Also, to maintain the PV system efficiently, the roof will be accessed more than a standard roof – it will have different heat patterns, drainage runoff, expansion and contraction, and racking system concerns.
Know your PV Financing agreement. Most require a constant power feed from the PV Panels, and contain penalties if the power is interrupted for maintenance, roof repair or equipment failure. Penalties, lost incentive payments and replacement costs can be extremely high, and need to be factored into the analysis for any rooftop PV system.
Have the right team. It is advisable to hire the right team to work with before, during, and after the PV system installation. Qualified solar professionals, architects familiar with renewable energy systems, and roofing industry professionals are just some of the consultants who could be on a building owner’s team for a large rooftop PV project. There could also be financial and legal professionals involved for many projects.
Keep in mind that some technical factors could affect the PV system’s performance, such as the module orientation, including solar declination and panel tilt angle (which should equal latitude), the site’s solar insolation level, and the potential degrading of the particular PV panels selected.
Make your choices carefully. While it can be a lucrative business decision to place a solar array on an existing empty roof, it is critical to make sure your roof and PV array are compatible for the long term. Getting knowledgeable architects such as those at Frederick Ward Associates and/or roofing professionals involved could be wise considering the nuances involved. Racking system options (including weight on the existing building’s structure), potential roof membrane failure, and roof maintenance and replacement all need to be considered prior to beginning a rooftop solar power generation project.
Frederick Ward Associates is currently working on four photovoltaic projects in Maryland – three rooftop arrays and one ground-mount array.
CCooper
Architecture, Frederick Ward, Sustainability
Frederick Ward Associates, Sustainability
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It’s Time to Update Java
Thursday, October 21st, 2010
If you have Java installed on your PC, don’t ignore those prompts to update it. According to a recent analysis by the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, they have found a twelvefold increase in malware exploits targeting Java in the last six months. In fact, the number of PCs infected by Java exploits now far exceed those infected by Adobe Reader exploits, another favorite target. Vendors of anti-virus & anti-malware software have a difficult time parsing Java code without seriously impacting the performance of your PC. Therefore, Java has become a target of choice for malware attacks.
Download the latest Java updates, or consider using a tool such as Secunia Personal Software Inspector to keep your patches up to date.
SKohler
Frederick Ward
Frederick Ward Associates, java update
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Frederick Ward Associates Focuses on Sustainability at Energy-From-Waste Talk
Monday, October 18th, 2010
A few of us from Frederick Ward Associates attended a recent Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) Chesapeake Post meeting September 16th, where Richard Hergenroeder, Director of Environmental Science of Covanta Energy, presented a very interesting talk on “Green Remediation and Energy from Waste”.
Hergenroeder indicated that Energy-from-Waste facilities are “green” because they reduce municipal landfill burdens posed by disposal of non-hazardous waste. Waste-to-energy facilities also provide an alternative to onsite landfill construction, procure a long-term source of renewable energy, and decrease export of waste from communities with little or no landfill capacity to other facilities.
During his presentation, Hergenroder highlighted that the U.S. EPA has stated, “Energy-from-Waste produces electricity with less environmental impact than almost any other source. After seeing a pictorial demonstration on how these facilities operate, it seems that they are a no-brainer and should continue to be the wave of the future as society continues to move towards becoming more greener in technology and practice.”
As an architecture firm that values sustainability, Frederick Ward Associates believes Harford County is very fortunate to have an Energy-from-Waste facility located on Magnolia Road in Joppa. The facility, which began operations in 1988, is owned by the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority and is operated by the Energy Recovery Operations, Inc. Designed by Consumat Systems LLC and constructed by Tyger Construction, the facility has a capacity of 360 tons per day of unprocessed solid waste. They process an average of 10,000 tons of waster per month which creates an average of 50,000 pounds of stream that is used by Aberdeen Proving Ground.
Learn more about what Frederick Ward Associates values.
jmettee
Frederick Ward, Sustainability
Frederick Ward Associates, Sustainability
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Frederick Ward Associates Provides Support For New Building Code Permits
Thursday, October 14th, 2010
Harford County Department of Inspections, Licenses & Permits (DILP) will be enforcing the Maryland Building Performance Standards COMAR 05.02.07. These new building codes (2009 International Building Code, 2009 International Residential Code and the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code as adopted by Maryland Building Performance Standards (MPBS) with no local amendments) were effective July 1, 2010.
In addition to the updates in regards to the various building codes, that took place on July 1, 2010, the 2009 International Existing Building Code will now replace the Maryland Rehabilitation Code, which was previously used for compliance of existing structures being renovated.
It should also be noted that when a commercial building permit application is submitted, it must now include signed and sealed architectural, structural and mechanical drawings. Plumbing and electrical permits will remain as separate permit reviews until further notice. In the event that a pre-engineering building will be utilized, signed and sealed structural drawings from the manufacturer must be included within the permit set along with signed and sealed foundation design documents.
As part of our standard architectural services, Frederick Ward Associates includes permit submission, tracking and retrieval (with the owner’s permission). FWA’s Architectural Department employs an IBC Certified Inspector for both Commercial and Residential projects. Frederick Ward Associates can provide full service permitting services for all municipalities within the State of Maryland and beyond.
TJasinski
Frederick Ward
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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Frederick Ward Associates Hosts Sustainability Seminars
Friday, September 17th, 2010
Note: The Sustainability Seminars have now been postponed until Spring 2011. Stay tuned – in the spring, we’ll have all the information about how to register for these classes.
Frederick Ward Associates will soon be hosting a series of Sustainability Seminars at Harford Community College. The first series of “green” seminars will take place September 30, with the informative events continuing through November 11.
The courses will cover the latest in green strategies, tax credits for green initiatives, green residential design, updates on Maryland storm water management regulations, and plenty more diverse topics that can help you incorporate sustainability into your business. Chuck Cooper, Kevin Small, and Gerry Powell, all knowledgeable members of the sustainable design community, will be presenting the four seminars. There are also plans for a second series of seminars that will run through Spring of 2011, featuring hands-on demonstrations such as how to build a rain garden, do’s and don’ts of composting, and use of rain barrels. Other topics will include green advocacy and community involvement, and renewable energy.
The events include opportunities for networking and a continental breakfast. It’s a perfect opportunity for development professionals, realtors, attorneys, environmental activists, bankers, builders, contractors and anyone interested in the future of energy efficient building. You can register for the series here.
CCooper
Community, Frederick Ward, Sustainability
Community, Frederick Ward Associates, Sustainability
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