i + D - March/April 2020 - 35

Commercial Commitments - By Robert Nieminen

"They were looking at it from the perspective of occupant
comfort, daylight access, glare control, and solar heat gain
reductions of this space and really ramping that down and
making a very sophisticated, informed design move," recalls
Elizabeth Resenic, sustainability strategist at Gensler. "We
were able to see a real cost savings from it and were able to
prove an energy savings too because we had built that into
the energy model."
Resenic refers to the Shaw Create Centre as "a highperformance project in a rural setting because we got to
[LEED Silver] based on technical prowess in design, not for
necessarily selecting a dense, well-connected site-but that
wasn't important for them." She says, "The importance
for them was co-locating with their plant and sharing the
interesting innovations that their manufacturing processes
were uncovering and exploring, and bringing them back to
their design teams."

Turning scrap
material into durable
chairs that are then
recycled at the end
of their useful lives
has always been the
practice at Emeco.
(Image: Miro Zagnoli)

When the Shaw team initially began thinking about the
building, Stephens said it had to align with three key pillars of
its brand values: to be knowledge-led; to be human centered;
and to be optimistic. The Create Centre is "the ultimate
expression of optimism in that we believe design can impact
people's lives," Stephens says, "and it gives us a sense of
passion and energy around the work we do."
A range of workspaces-from an open seating plan to
common areas used for impromptu team engagement and
deliberately placed breakout rooms-promotes connectivity,
collaboration, productivity, movement, and wellbeing. Further,
open, connective floor plans and access to outdoor space,
including a patio and community vegetable garden, impact
both employees and visitors alike. And it's working. The
new facility earned a post-occupancy score from Gensler's
Workplace Performance Index (WPI)-an online survey tool
that evaluates how well workplaces support how people
work-of 73, which is a 27-point increase from the previous
facility and six points higher than the industry average.
The three-story, LEED
Silver-certified Shaw
Create Centre was designed
by Gensler Atlanta.
(Image: Connie Zhou)

Emeco House |
Venice, Calif.
For some companies, recycling isn't a new concept or
initiative; it's part of their longstanding history. That's certainly
the case with furniture company Emeco, which started in
1944 by salvaging aluminum to make chairs for the U.S. Navy
during wartime. Turning scrap material into durable chairs and
recycling them at the end of their useful lives are practices that
the manufacturer continues today.
"Some people would argue that the cost it takes to do
the recycling doesn't warrant the effort, but we just have
this philosophy of using everything that we have, being
conscientious about our materials, and having no waste,"
explains Gregg Buchbinder, CEO of Emeco. "It's more of a
cultural thing than it is for cost savings."

i+D - March/April 2020

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i + D - March/April 2020

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