Page 92 - Green Building Through Integrated Design

SWOT ANALYSIS 69

reuses stormwater from downtown Boise streets and parking lots, contributes a
60 to 80 percent reduction in water use compared to similar buildings. The facil-
ity uses 50 percent less energy for HVAC, hot water, and lighting loads compared
to a typical office building of the same size including a 65 percent reduction in
electricity used for lighting.*

The Charrette Process

Most observers agree that the key to the charrette process first involves listening, then
participating creatively. The key to charrette facilitation is to create different avenues
for participation, so that the group benefits from everyone’s contribution (Fig. 4.1).
Dan Heinfeld, president of LPA, Inc., a leading architecture firm, says: †
Part of the charrette process lies in knowing that a good idea can come from anyplace.
You have to be willing to accept that. It doesn’t matter where the idea comes from.
When those things happen, it’s so clear. You can’t bring a bunch of [solitary] egos to
an all-stakeholder meeting because it just doesn’t work. The other part is to be will-
ing to let go [of control] and let the process run its course. If you really believe in the
process, you’ll believe in the outcome also.
We’re working on a student center for California State University, Northridge now. It’s basi-
cally paid for by student money, so there are four students on the committee. In one of the
early design meetings, one of the students said something like, “Why do these gyms always
look the same?” Our team took that [question to heart], and now we’re doing a project that
doesn’t look like any gym you’ve ever seen. It’s remarkably different, because first, it’s a sus-
tainable solution and second, because it’s the result of a truly integrated design process.

As you’ll see in the stories below, without a strong charrette process, what gets
designed tends to be pretty conventional and typically comes from the previous proj-
ect experience of the architect and engineers. The problem is that few of those previ-
ous projects represent high-performance projects at the level most of us would like to
see, that is, 50 percent or more energy savings, LEED Gold or Platinum certified, with
a significantly reduced carbon footprint.

SWOT Analysis

My friend Nathan Good, an award-winning green architect in Salem, Oregon likes to use
a SWOT analysis for his visioning sessions, using a diagram much like the one shown
in Fig. 4.2. Borrowed from the world of the MBA school and from management

*FM Link [online], http://www.fmlink.com/ProfResources/Sustainability/Articles/article.cgi?USGBC:200703-
19.html, accessed April 2008.
†
Interview with Dan Heinfeld, LPA, Inc., February 2008.