“We think the Eco Office presents a great opportunity to demonstrate cost-effective, whole-building optimized sustainable design,” said Lord, Aeck & Sargent’s Joe Greco, AIA, LEED™-accredited professional and principal-in-charge of the project. “With the combined talents and experience of Southface and all members of the design team, I believe the Eco Office can help transform the market for high performance, green commercial buildings. We’ll attempt to get there with hard work, teamwork, and a well thought out, comprehensive design approach.”

Teams, Partnerships and South FACEs of the Future

In an effort to maintain the project goal of having “a transparent process and feeling of community ownership,” Lord, Aeck & Sargent was one of three firms to participate in the design charrette at the 2003 Greenprints conference. This interactive day was a great opportunity to expose a broad segment of the design community to the ‘eco charrette’ process. Lord, Aeck & Sargent believes that the charette set the tone for the spirit of collaboration and underscored the importance and the benefit of community involvement in the design process.

The French term charrette means "little cart" and is derived from the practice of proctors circulating with carts to collect the final drawings from architecture students at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris during the 19th century. The students would frantically put finishing touches on their work as the charrette approached. Today we use the term to describe a collaborative, creative, inclusive group effort of various stakeholders faced with complex planning, design and construction challenges.

The charrette provided Lord, Aeck & Sargent with the opportunity to better understand Southface’s project goals very early on in the project, allowing for a truly integrated design solution and direction for the project.

It also provided an opportunity to “jump start” the collaborative design process with Southface and to tap into a wealth of sustainable design knowledge on a project that has the ability to substantially influence others through positive, exciting and effective demonstration.

After being selected as the Southface Eco Office design firm, the Lord, Aeck & Sargent team expressed their enthusiasm. “We’re really enjoying our partnership with Southface,” said Jim Nicolow, AIA, LEED™-accredited professional and head project architect. “It’s giving us the opportunity to investigate sustainable design strategies that are well beyond the mainstream. The project is also allowing Southface, Lord, Aeck & Sargent and the design team to contribute to the metro Atlanta design and construction community by providing a demonstration showcase of regionally appropriate, high-performance, environmentally responsible design.”

In a unique collaboration, Lord, Aeck & Sargent will not be the only architect behind the scenes on the project. Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates (TVS) will act as owner’s consultant. However, Lord, Aeck & Sargent will be doing all of the design work, as the role TVS plays is consulting-based. “Lord, Aeck and Sargent will make full use of the expertise of Southface and their project consultant TVS by engaging the critical project issues in an open and collaborative design environment from the earliest stages of design,” said Greco.

The architects understand that the Southface Eco Office must effectively help “teach” sustainable, yet reasonably attainable, environmentally friendly design strategies in order to be truly successful. To that end, the firm is focusing on creating a design that constitutes a “real world” office environment but at the same time makes substantial use of available technologies to improve the quality of both the interior and exterior environments, as well as the regional and global environment. Lord, Aeck & Sargent was founded in 1942 and is committed to providing responsive design, technological expertise and exceptional service. Headquartered in midtown Atlanta, with a branch office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Lord, Aeck & Sargent projects are located throughout the United States. Specializing in Science, Education and Historic Preservation, the LAS staff of architects, interior designers, heritage preservationists and construction cost managers provides services from master planning and programming to design, construction administration, conditions assessments and facility management support.

Where are we now?

While Southface’s growing staff and audience eagerly awaits additional programming, meeting and demonstration office space, the primary goal of the Southface Eco Office is to provide the best real-world example of sustainable design. According to Jules Paulk, LEED™-accredited professional and Director of Southface Green Building Services, “The planning and design team is not in a race to the finish line at this point. We are very much in the phase of setting up management protocols, communication processes and data tracking systems.” Southface is also engaging technology partners to ensure the project is cutting-edge but also maintaining a demonstrative building that will transform the marketplace. Paulk emphasizes that the better the infrastructure and more transparent the process, the better this case study will serve the community and the more pleasant the experience will be for all team members.