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Title: San Francisco’s Green Building Nightmare
Source:
BeyondChron
URL Source: http://www.beyondchron.org/articles ... n_Building_Nightmare_5428.html
Published: Mar 7, 2008
Author: Randy Shaw
Post Date: 2008-03-07 10:38:54 by Indrid Cold
Keywords: None
Views: 316
Comments: 20
The idea of “green” buildings is a terrific marketing concept. In San Francisco, it has helped grease the political roadway for massive, view-blocking luxury condominiums, implying that building these structures is more environmentally sustaining than leaving land vacant. Few seem to care whether green buildings can be a nightmare for those having to work inside high-rise structures lacking heat or air conditioning. The new Thomas Mayne designed Federal Building at 7th and Mission Streets in San Francisco is a case in point. Lauded by the New York Times as a building that “may one day be remembered as the crowning achievement of the General Services Administration’s Design Excellence program,” what some believe is the greenest federal building in the nation’s history also likely has the worst work environment. While architectural describe the building’s “sense of airiness” as “magical,” employees view working in this heat and air-conditioning free building with the wavy concrete floors and ceilings as a nightmare. Green but Cold Thomas Mayne’s new George H.W. Bush Federal Building now looms over midtown San Francisco. While people have sharply divergent reactions to its unique exterior design -- I happen to like it -- the verdict on the structure’s function as a office space for federal employees is nearly unanimous: it is a disaster. Not that architectural critics care. Bedazzled by unusual design features and its focus on energy conservation, reviews of Mayne’s latest work seem to ignore whether it fulfills its functional role as a federal office building. Based on what I have been told, it clearly does not. The first fact about the building that may cause surprise is its lack of air conditioning or heat. According to Mayne, “a bike rack and air conditioning get you the same point. I’d much rather see BTU and CO2 requirements and let the professional community solve the problem.” I apparently lack sufficient understanding of green technology, as it does not seem that a bike rack would “get you to the same point” in terms of keeping workers cool. In the real world on the 15th floor of the Federal Building, workers seek to relieve the heat by opening windows, which not only sends papers flying, but, depending on their proximity to the opening, makes creating a stable temperature for all workers near impossible. When I spoke with a Labor Department worker at the building (who noted that she is encountering the type of bad work conditions that her agency is supposed to enforce against), she confirmed what might have been an urban legend: that some employees must use umbrellas to keep the sun out of their cubicles. The lack of internal climate controls has left some workers too cold and others too hot. A happy medium has proved elusive. And while the managers’ offices do have heat and air conditioning -- a two-tiered approach fitting in a building named for Bush -- the “green” design apparently has messed with the effectiveness of these systems, leaving these top staff as physically uncomfortable as the line workers. Dysfunctional Elevators According to my source, architect Mayne has stated that federal office workers do not get enough exercise. To address this, he installed elevators in the building that only stop at every third floor. This requires employees to walk up or down one or two flights of metal stairs. Persons with physical disabilities who cannot use stairs can use a separate elevator that stops at every floor. The foreseeable result is that employees seeking to avoid stairs use the disabled access elevator, leaving this car crammed with people and making the ride to the top extremely slow. I am told that when the freight elevator is out of service, deliveries must use the disabled access elevator. It seems only a matter of time until a disabled worker sues the General Services Administration for providing inadequate disabled elevator access in the building. Missing Cafeteria Mayne’s desire to get workers walking may have impacted his decision to locate the employee cafeteria across the street from the building. Employees are not happy about having to leave the building just to get a sandwich, and were allegedly told that the building would include an on-site café. But as is clear with every aspect of this testament to green buildings, this project was more a science experiment than a place designed to enhance worker productivity. No LEED Approval Green building advocates will no doubt argue that the Federal Building is a bad example, as it failed to secure LEED approval. According to its website, The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria. Mayne noted that "I wasn't arrogant, but I was confident — I just assumed we had the platinum rating. All of a sudden we went through LEED and it wasn't working." But the project’s failure to satisfy LEED’s scoring system is not the problem. Rather, it is that the federal government spent millions over budget to create a building that does not provide a minimally satisfactory work environment. And the project’s huge cost overruns and functional inadequacies have apparently been ignored solely due to excitement over its “Green” stature.
Poster Comment: If anyone needs me, I'll be in Galt's Gulch.
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#1. To: tom007, robin, Axenolith, Tauzero, lodwick (#0)
Shut your whore mouth, Mr. President.
Sounds like a boondoggle. However, the ideal of "worker productivity" is working quite well in Communist China and fukk to that.
lol I'm so glad it was named after HW Bush.
'He will make Cheney look like Gandhi.' I think they just execute the handicapped in China, so this would be less of a problem.
Shut your whore mouth, Mr. President.
I guess I missed this one important fact. Gubmint workers in San Franscisco, no less...enough said.
They're the lucky workers.
Not that architectural critics care. Do I detect a pattern?
As we meandered our way through the ever busy Bree Street, Harry could not help observing how filthy downtown Johannesburg had become. I had made the same disturbing observation myself the day I arrived, but had been reluctant to accept the disturbing fact that decay of public infrastructure seems to be the story in areas of the city inhabited by blacks. Predominantly black areas have become an eyesore. The beautiful lawns and flowerbeds I noticed in some areas three years earlier now tell sad stories of degradation. Some of them have become open-air urinals.
A nightmarishly ugly building that looks and works horribly with a nightmare name to match, and I thought the new Eugene Oregon federal building was a POS. What the new Wayne Morse federal building in Eugene, Oregon looks like in this early public presentation rendition. Our community threatened to sue and held protests at the other federal building here if they at least didn't put handicapped ramps so a person could navigate into it without using an elevator like this Poppy building in SF. They strongly refused at first, but we made them realize we already didn't like a second fed building and that we were seriously good at making good on our promises and relented. They didn't want to because they said it disrupted the flow of the design. It is so bright and shiny like an old toaster, the sun off it blinds drivers going by when the sun is the right angle. In the fact it has a twelve inch letter rendition of GW Bush's name that I predict will eventually get vandalized with a sledge hammer. Bronze is very malleable. As we have lots of protests involving fed buildings here, it is designed so the feds can observe and intensely monitor anyone at the site. Fortunately for us, we prefer to do this at the older new building which is also ugly as crap.
If you want it screwed-up, just call the gov.
May the goddess smile upon you good folks in Oregon.
Shut your whore mouth, Mr. President.
This was so far beyond the pale that I just had to post it.
Shut your whore mouth, Mr. President.
SHIT! Your city's being attacked by a giant desktop PC!!!
Government blows and that which governs least blows least...
Pinging the new California List.
What the hell is the deal with this horrible new trend in architecture, to create formless, ugly, unbalanced aesthetic nightmares that have all the appeal of a rusted-out Hyundai after being run through a car crusher? What's going on here? Who are these people who have bestowed the blessing of approval upon this disjointed, disabled and dysfunctional "style" of architecture? Good God, what a freaking nightmare scenario. I assure you that future generations will look back upon this era and either feel extreme pity, or laugh their asses off. Most likely they'll laugh their asses off with the kind of embarrassed, self- conscious half-concealed sniggering one does when you see a morbidly obese Down's Syndrome victim drop their milkshake and then slip and fall into the sticky puddle they created.
ur not going to believe this
#2. To: Indrid Cold (#0)
this project was more a science experiment than a place designed to enhance worker productivity.
#3. To: Indrid Cold (#0)
While architectural describe the building’s “sense of airiness” as “magical,” employees view working in this heat and air-conditioning free building with the wavy concrete floors and ceilings as a nightmare.
U.S. conservative pundit Pat Buchanan, imagining presidential hopeful John McCain in the White House.
#4. To: angle (#2)
However, the ideal of "worker productivity" is working quite well in Communist China and fukk to that.
#5. To: Indrid Cold (#0)
office space for federal employees is nearly unanimous: it is a disaster.
#6. To: Indrid Cold (#4)
this would be less of a problem
#7. To: Indrid Cold (#0)
the verdict on the structure’s function as a office space for federal employees is nearly unanimous: it is a disaster.
#8. To: Indrid Cold (#0)
Diplomacy is the art of saying nice doggy, till you find a large rock.
#9. To: Indrid Cold. greenie-weenies (#1)
#10. To: Ferret Mike (#8)
In the fact it has a twelve inch letter rendition of GW Bush's name that I predict will eventually get vandalized with a sledge hammer.
#11. To: lodwick (#9)
If you want it screwed-up, just call the gov.
#12. To: Ferret Mike (#8)
RE the first picture...
#13. To: Indrid Cold, *California list* (#0)
Vote Republicrat or Democin, it doesn't matter, you still get McHillobama
#14. To: Ferret Mike (#8)
 | Gold and silver are REAL money, paper is but a promise. |
#15. To: lodwick (#9)
And people want them to run health care. Yikes.
If you want it screwed-up, just call the gov.
Vote Republicrat or Democin, it doesn't matter, you still get McHillobama
#16. To: Elliott Jackalope (#14)
You have a way with words.
formless, ugly, unbalanced aesthetic nightmares that have all the appeal of a rusted-out Hyundai after being run through a car crusher?
Vote Republicrat or Democin, it doesn't matter, you still get McHillobama
#17. To: farmfriend (#16)
Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed my mini-rant.
| Gold and silver are REAL money, paper is but a promise. |
#18. To: Elliott Jackalope (#17)
At one point I wanted to be an architect but decided I didn’t have the talent for it. I’m artistic in many ways but building materials just aren’t a medium I can work with.
Vote Republicrat or Democin, it doesn't matter, you still get McHillobama
#19. To: farmfriend (#18)
I was raised in the carpentry field and in high school the vocational tests indicated I should be an architect. I decided against it because of all the bullshit (which exists in almost everything) but I am excruciatingly sensitive to the design of houses and buildings, to the point I can't even drive down the street without praising or damning whatever building I see. It's more of a curse than a blessing.
At one point I wanted to be an architect but decided I didn’t have the talent for it. I’m artistic in many ways but building materials just aren’t a medium I can work with.
When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
#20. To: YertleTurtle (#19)
I'll bet.
It's more of a curse than a blessing.
Vote Republicrat or Democin, it doesn't matter, you still get McHillobama
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