Founded in 2009 with an initial endowment of $1.9 million, HMC’s nonprofit Designing Futures Foundation (DFF) has donated about $230,000 in its three years of existence, including $105,000 in scholarships to California students. The grants help promising high schoolers with an interest in architecture, design, engineering, education, or healthcare pay for expenses like test preparation services, computers, and college entrance exam fees and tuition. The scholarships can be extended for up to five years of college.
Executive Director Adrienne Luce says the foundation serves as an extension of HMC’s social responsibility. The DFF’s Community Project initiative provides grants of up to $10,000 to HMC employees for projects for that benefit the communities in which they live and work.
For example, three HMC employees—Pablo La Roche, PhD, LEED AP, Sustainable Design Director; Eera Babtiwale, LEED AP BD+C, Environmental Analyst; and Sandy Kate, REFP, LEED AP, Associate Principal/Senior Education Facilities Planner—proposed a sustainability education program at McKinley Elementary School in Santa Monica. The DFF sponsored nine workshops for 220 McKinley students in grades 3-5 over three days, providing 13½ hours of instruction on energy, water, and waste.
The DFF has funded scholarship programs at Ramona High School, a healthcare academy in Riverside, Calif., and at the Center for Advanced Research and Technology, in Fresno. The DFF also supports Bright Prospect, a college access and retention program in Pomona, and hosted a career day for students aspiring to become architects, engineers, or designers, topped off by a tour of the Ontario office.
Scott Plante, AIA, LEED AP, Senior Project Designer, won a $7,500 DFF grant to help restore the historic Micheltorena Steps in Silver Lake, the vintage 1920s-LA neighborhood where he lives. “The steps are on a main route to the school, and they’re in a state of disrepair,” says Plante, who serves on the Silver Lake Urban Design Committee. The $24,000 project, with donations from the DFF, the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, and the Safe Routes to Schools program, plus a lighting upgrade by the local water and power utility, will be completed in two phases starting next June.
See the video about the DFF and the Micheltorena Steps project at: www.BDCnetwork.com/HMC/DFF.
At the university level, the Designing Futures Foundation has:
- Provided a $10,000 seed grant to help Cal Poly Pomona start a healthcare architecture studio, the first of its kind west of the Mississippi.
- Worked with Harvey Mudd College and the California Institute of the Arts on a project that uses online games and resources to foster greater environmental responsibility among college students.
- Funded an $18,000 water demonstration garden at Norco College, a two-year institution in Riverside.
- Sponsored research by HMC staff and consulting experts at UC San Diego’s Calit2 StarCAVE virtual reality environment on the effects of the built environment on building users. +
Related Stories
| Nov 2, 2010
Energy Analysis No Longer a Luxury
Back in the halcyon days of 2006, energy analysis of building design and performance was a luxury. Sure, many forward-thinking AEC firms ran their designs through services such as Autodesk’s Green Building Studio and IES’s Virtual Environment, and some facility managers used Honeywell’s Energy Manager and other monitoring software. Today, however, knowing exactly how much energy your building will produce and use is survival of the fittest as energy costs and green design requirements demand precision.
| Nov 2, 2010
Yudelson: ‘If It Doesn’t Perform, It Can’t Be Green’
Jerry Yudelson, prolific author and veteran green building expert, challenges Building Teams to think big when it comes to controlling energy use and reducing carbon emissions in buildings.
| Nov 2, 2010
Historic changes to commercial building energy codes drive energy efficiency, emissions reductions
Revisions to the commercial section of the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) represent the largest single-step efficiency increase in the history of the national, model energy. The changes mean that new and renovated buildings constructed in jurisdictions that follow the 2012 IECC will use 30% less energy than those built to current standards.
| Nov 1, 2010
Sustainable, mixed-income housing to revitalize community
The $41 million Arlington Grove mixed-use development in St. Louis is viewed as a major step in revitalizing the community. Developed by McCormack Baron Salazar with KAI Design & Build (architect, MEP, GC), the project will add 112 new and renovated mixed-income rental units (market rate, low-income, and public housing) totaling 162,000 sf, plus 5,000 sf of commercial/retail space.
| Nov 1, 2010
John Pearce: First thing I tell designers: Do your homework!
John Pearce, FAIA, University Architect at Duke University, Durham, N.C., tells BD+C’s Robert Cassidy about the school’s construction plans and sustainability efforts, how to land work at Duke, and why he’s proceeding with caution when it comes to BIM.
| Nov 1, 2010
Vancouver’s former Olympic Village shoots for Gold
The first tenants of the Millennium Water development in Vancouver, B.C., were Olympic athletes competing in the 2010 Winter Games. Now the former Olympic Village, located on a 17-acre brownfield site, is being transformed into a residential neighborhood targeting LEED ND Gold. The buildings are expected to consume 30-70% less energy than comparable structures.
| Oct 27, 2010
Grid-neutral education complex to serve students, community
MVE Institutional designed the Downtown Educational Complex in Oakland, Calif., to serve as an educational facility, community center, and grid-neutral green building. The 123,000-sf complex, now under construction on a 5.5-acre site in the city’s Lake Merritt neighborhood, will be built in two phases, the first expected to be completed in spring 2012 and the second in fall 2014.
| Oct 21, 2010
GSA confirms new LEED Gold requirement
The General Services Administration has increased its sustainability requirements and now mandates LEED Gold for its projects.
| Oct 18, 2010
World’s first zero-carbon city on track in Abu Dhabi
Masdar City, the world’s only zero-carbon city, is on track to be built in Abu Dhabi, with completion expected as early as 2020. Foster + Partners developed the $22 billion city’s master plan, with Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, Aedas, and Lava Architects designing buildings for the project’s first phase, which is on track to be ready for occupancy by 2015.
