2020 wasn’t easy to say the least. Our hearts go out to everyone who lost someone they loved or who struggled in any way from complications of the virus, or for any reason.
As we’ve come to do each year, we are going to take a moment to share a few highlights we were grateful for in 2020. These and all VSE actions are ones that we could never have done without you: our great clients, friends, and community members. Thank you.
VSE employee Elli Terwiel is now a licensed California Professional Engineer after successfully passing all of her National and California state board exams in 2020. She is excited to have her weekends open for more outdoor activities like skiing and mountain biking in the near future.
In February of 2020, Rebecca passed the Certified Professional exam with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). She is happy to be able to use her newfound knowledge and skills for the benefit of VSE and its employees.
Jill recently became the newest member of VSE to acquire her LEED Green Associate Accreditation in late 2020.
2020 also saw continued commercial work including multi-story mixed use buildings up to five stories, breweries, distilleries, wineries and restaurants including the new Comal Next Door in downtown Oakland, CA.
As an office standard, VSE designs with environmental impact in mind, though it's impossible to estimate these impacts as accurately as full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). We are proud to now be offering the service of an LCA calculation to track the global warming potential and other environmental effects of design decisions. Based on the project's needs, we utilize the appropriate or the combination of appropriate LCA quantification programs including but not limited to: Athena, One Click LCA, EC3, and Tally. The data can be generated in real time to act as a design tool for the owner and design team, or be completed after the approval of the permit for documentation of the completed structure. Let us know if you are interested in this service for your upcoming or existing projects.
On top of setting maximum cement content limits in our project specs based on the Marin County Low Carbon Concrete Code, we offer to act as the communication coordinator between the contractor, sub contractor, batch plant, engineer (us), and any other professional involved to ensure the lowest carbon, practical concrete mix is used (all free of design time charges). If changes to a practitioner's normal mix are required we focus on suggesting cost neutral or low cost updates which are normally possible when open communication about required set times, strengths and available supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) takes place.
VSE is archiving the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of the mixes made available to and preferred by contractors on our jobs. We hope to share helpful data from this pursuit with you soon.
It’s always fun to see the range and frequency of permitted, seismically safe, solid clay wall systems increasing. We had our hands on three earthbag designs, four adobe designs, and multiple cob designs last year as well as other related materials.
Anthony Dente, in collaboration with the Cob Research Institute, assisted in completing the drafting of the commentary for the Cob Construction Appendix, which is to be published soon as part of the 2021 International Residential Code.
Mass timber is the most clear example of biobased, carbon storing material used in larger buildings. We worked on a number of projects with Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) slabs as well as Heavy Timber Buckling Resistant Braced Frames (HT-BRB) last year and look forward to more of these projects in the future as owners, designers and contractors become more comfortable with this material in the US.
We are working with Stopwaste, an Oakland-based nonprofit, Arup, CASBA, and Arkin and Tilt Architecture on the East Bay Carbon Storing Building concept project, a multistory mixed-use building using straw bale insulation and several other natural materials and methods. From CASBA's recent newsletter: "The completed project design and report, which will be available soon, demonstrate that it is possible to build an ambitious straw-based project in an urban area that is net carbon-sequestering in the materials that it uses!"
Gravel or “rubble” trenches are a technique that decreases concrete use when a wide foundation is required, such as below a straw bale wall, or when a deep foundation is needed due to certain types of poor soil conditions or frost lines (this technique does not apply to all poor soils). The system is applicable when these wide or deep footings do not require the strength of a concrete grade beam or footing equal to the full width or depth dictated by other factors, which is common. The technique is simple, though rarely used. We saw a few designs built in 2020.
Our many straw bale projects each year always hold a warm spot in our hearts, in addition to a well-insulated warm spot for our clients.
2020 also included a number of newer or less frequently used approaches to straw bale design, including a prefab, panelized systems as well as bales on end between framing at 24" o.c.
Hopefully these cute faces of Anthony and his wife Kelly’s new twins, Oscar & Louie, are a reward for making it to the bottom of our holiday email. Born on July 4, 2020, they are a wonderful reminder of why it is important to care about climate change, green design, and all of the important issues of our time.
