Built Environment Plus Hosts Annual Green Building Showcase

By Jay Fox

Built Environment Plus played host to the annual Green Building Showcase last week, on October 30. The event was held at Boston’s largest net-zero facility at One Boston Wharf Road in the South Boston Waterfront. Built Environment Plus received a record 68 award submissions this year for 12 project categories. An additional award, Change Agent of the Year, was also presented to Marty Josten, Principal Director of Building Decarbonization at New Ecology.

“Marty’s impact goes far beyond technical expertise,” says Josten’s nominator, Joyce Losick-Yang. “She’s not only advancing building decarbonization, she’s creating a blueprint for how communities can build a resilient sustainable future through collaboration which is so critical for this work…Marty combines rigorous technical insight with deep belief in people. She’s deeply committed to helping environmental justice communities thrive by building one family at a time,” she continues.

“Marty’s professional accomplishments are grounded in a simple and profoundly powerful kindness and compassion for others (along with a wicked sense of humor) that engenders lifelong friendships and encourages the professional development of her peers.”

Of the 68 projects that were considered, the Josiah Quincy Upper School walked away as the night's biggest winner, as the school won both Green Building of the Year and the People’s Choice Award. Located in Boston’s historic Chinatown, the Josiah Quincy Upper School (JQUS) is an all-electric facility that is only one of eight schools in the country to receive LEED v4.1 Platinum certification. It is also designed to meet Boston’s Green New Deal and climate action plans while supporting minority students in a dense urban environment. JQUS demonstrates that exceptional building performance and educational excellence can be achieved on small, urban sites without significant costs.

According to the judges, “This project does the most with the least. It supports the whole learner, addresses a broad set of sustainability issues, and fully leverages a challenging site and limited budget for maximum impact in an underserved community.”

Team members include:

• Boston Public Schools (Owner)

• HMFH Architects (Registered Architect)

• Skanska (Project Manager)

• Turner Construction Company (Construction Manager)

• Nitsch Engineering (Civil Consultant)

• GGD Consulting Engineers (MPE/FP Consultant)

• LeMessurier (Structural Engineer)

• Arcadis | IBI Group (Landscape Architecture)

• McPhail Associates, Inc. (Geotechnical Engineer)

• Cananaugh Tocci Associates (Acoustical/Audio Visual)

• Thornton Tomasetti (Envelope Consultant)

• Soden Sustainability (Sustainability/LEED Consultant)

• Theatre Projects (Theatre Consultant) 

Other awards included:

• Building Decarb Intervention: Levinson Tower Heat Pump and Exhaust Heat Recovery System (Roxbury Tenants of Harvard)

• Carbon & Energy: The Guild; Somerville, MA (Architect: Utile, Inc.)

• Equity & Inclusion: The Pryde; Hyde Park, MA (Architect: DiMella Shaffer)

• Health & Wellness: Penn State Behrend Erie Hall Recreation and Wellness Center; Erie, PA (Architect: Sasaki)

• Site & Landscape: J.J. Carroll Redevelopment's Intergenerational Gardens; Brighton, MA (Landscape Architect: Stantec)

• Sustainable Building Operations: Jaycee Place Ventilation Overhaul; Lowell, MA (Lead Implementation Partner: Aspen Air Duct)

• Sustainable Whole-Building Renovation: 40 Thorndike; Cambridge, MA (Architect: Elkus Manfredi Architects)

• Sustainable Construction Innovation: Stellata; Boston, MA (Architect: Stantec)

• Sustainable Interior Fit-Out: Confidential Office Deconstruction & Reuse; Metro Boston, MA (Turner Construction Company)

• Student Project: Terra Cura Center; Salvaterra, Brazil (Students Elijah Feliz, Júlia De Lima, Hunter Osborne, and Berlens Badin of Boston Architectural College)

Finally, the judges included:

• Michael Brown, HKS

• Kjell Anderson, LMN Architects

• Allison Wilson, Ayers Saint Gross

• Margaret Montgomery, NBBJ

• Angi Rivera, Sellen Construction

• Maria Perez, Gensler

• Prairna Gupta-Garg, WRNS Studio

• Deepa Vedavyas, NOPEC

• Brian Turner, CMTA

• Teresa Rainey, Interface Engineering

• Karina Hershberg, PAE Consulting Engineers

• Cedra Goldman, The Manya Group

• Lona Rerick, ZGF Architects

• Rob Winstead, VMDO Architects

• Sandra Montalbo, Overland Partners

To learn more about each of the winning projects, you can check out the recent post by Built Environment Plus.