Monthly Archives: June 2010

Tuesday Tidbit: Modernist Home Tour this weekend

Posted on by

Interested in modernist homes and live in the Triangle? If so, you might want to check out the Triangle Modernist Houses Thompson House tour this coming Saturday, June 19th.

From the Triangle Modernist website:

One of the Triangle’s most remarkable houses!  Built in 2001 and commissioned in 1999, the Bobby and Diane Thompson Residence was designed by David Davenport.  It was built by the Splinter Group and Tom Brown with Bobby Thompson actively managing much of the construction.  A 6000-square-foot, two-story home engineered of heavy steel and wood construction covered in real stucco.  Includes a go-kart track modeled on Bristol International Speedway and a 3400 sf garage/apartment.   Interior design by Lynda Lankford.  Lighting by Stan Pomeranz of Lighttech Design.

The Thompson house is part of a ten house tour by the Triangle Modernist Houses, which aims to showcase the metro-Raleigh area, which has the third largest collection of modernist houses in the country.

LEED Credibility Challenged– UPDATE

Posted on by

 A group of local citizens, designers, and school board Building Committee members in Eagle Ridge, Wisconsin has issued a statement expressing their belief that LEED certifications are now suspect, following the failure of the USGBC to withdraw LEED Certification from the Northland Pines High School.  The group had appealed a decision to dismiss their claims that the LEED Gold certification for the school should be revoked, despite clear evidence which, they claim, shows that the building did not meet specific ASHRAE Standards, which are prerequisites to getting a LEED (green) building certification.

 They call into question the value of LEED certification if there is no verification of a purported building’s “green” credentials.

 You can download their statement of concern “USGBC and LEED Credibility Destroyed”.

 For more information relating to the case, Stephen Del Percio’s article “Wild Week for Green Real Estate Law” is an excellent summary.

 As previously mentioned on this blog, there is no clear idea of how the Courts would treat any LEED-specific claims.  Yet.  Stay tuned.

 UPDATE:  This afternoon, the USGBC has issued a statement standing by their findings:

LEED’s intent, and USGBC’s mission, is about helping people learn about and understand how to design, build and operate better buildings.  Buildings are complex systems of systems and any of the 100,000 of decisions associated with design, construction and operation can always be second-guessed. We are confident that our due diligence has been more than sufficient to put these issues to rest, and we are moving forward to focus our efforts where they do the most good — advancing the market uptake of green buildings and communities that is at the heart of our work

The full statement and commentary can be reviewed at Chris Cheatam’s article “Breaking: USGBC Stands by Its LEED Challenge Decision.”

Model Green Hotel—Putting the “Green” in Greensboro

Posted on by

This Sunday’s N&O featured a piece on the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, NC.  Developer Dennis Quaintance is the man behind the hotel, which is the first hotel in the country to obtain a Platinum LEED rating.  According to its website,  the Hotel was built to use 40% less energy and 30% less water than a comparable hotel.  Innovations include  a unique elevator design which captures and reutilizes the system’s energy expenditure as well as 100 rooftop solar panels to generate hot water.

In stark contrast to the recent Town of Cary decision  to forego LEED certification for its new fire department building, the Proximity Hotel has spent approximately 3% extra to obtain its certification.  Developer Quaintance expects to make the money back, through a combination of energy efficiency and state and federal tax credits, as early as 2012.

If more developers calculate that they can make more money through the LEED program, expect to see more LEED certified buildings in the future.  For now, however, two years after the Proximity Hotel first opened, there is only one other platinum hotel in the U.S.

 

How to Smartly Handle Project Documents

Posted on by
mountain of construction paperwork

Paperwork by luxomedia via Flickr

In the Contract Risks Management Group on LinkedIn, L.H. Chin wrote an article about file keeping for contract risk management.  Basically, his premise is that if you cannot keep your Project files orderly, you have exponentially increased your chances of a problem later.   His particular example dealt with originals versus reproduced copies, which is only somewhat germane to North Carolina contracts.  (Here, copies can be used as evidence most of the time—though not always).  His main point, however, about the ability to minimize future risks by having good document control policies in place, is something every project manager should think about.

 Here are a few tips of my own in that regard:

1.   File all communications in one place.  Don’t keep faxes in one file, email in another, and letters in a third.  Don’t keep incoming and outgoing correspondence separated by vendor.  Keep it all in one chronological file.  If you ever find yourself needing legal assistance, this will save many hours and untold stress for everybody.

1.b.  Caveat:  don’t feel like you need to print out every email.  Do, however, maintain a separate email e-folder for the Project, and go ahead and print those really crucial, smoking gun emails.

2.  If you insist on violating Rule 1 (and I know those of you who read this blog would never consider such a thing, right?):  Have all the files, categories, and such you want, but please also make a “master” chronological file of all correspondence.   Just do it.

3.  If you have any communications with your lawyer, an insurance representative (outside of the normal bonding paperwork), or otherwise have documents relating to potential claims, do keep them separate.  Put all such correspondence, in a folder marked “legal,” away from the Project file to prevent inadvertent disclosure to anyone else if there is ever litigation on the matter.

3.b  If in doubt whether something should be in “legal” or “correspondence”, err on the side of “legal.”  Your attorney can always change the classification later, but she can’t put the genie back in the bottle if something that is privileged is mistakenly given to a party suing you.

If you have any questions about these tips, or want to discuss your current procedure for record management, shoot me an email.  My contact information can be found on my Firm bio or at the Footer of the Blog.  Or, you can simply leave me a note in the comments. 
 

___________________________________

Photo: “Paperwork” by luxomedia via Flickr/CC license.