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Brumbaugh & Associates |
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These days more and more office developers are interested in adding outdoor amenities such as courtyards, patios, gardens and dining spaces to “make the work experience more pleasurable and productive,” says Mark Brumbaugh, a principal at Brumbaugh & Associates. Brumbaugh sees this trend not only in large office campuses, but also in urban condominiums and apartments, where many former single-family homeowners are moving. “There’s much less space, so landscaped space becomes that much more important,” he said. More health care projects But condominium and apartment projects are few and far between these days, thanks to the subprime lending mess. Meanwhile, Brumbaugh’s small company is busy with health care projects — it has five of them going — and its long-time staple of large office developments like those at Microsoft and Nintendo. More LEED projects LEED continues to become more mainstream, Brumbaugh said, with the majority of his firm’s new projects pursuing LEED certification. “The biggest trend we’ve seen is the increasing acceptance (of LEED) in the private sector,” Brumbaugh said. The encouragement of design review boards and local incentives, at least in Seattle, are contributing to this movement. “On multifamily condo projects, you’re allowed additional floors as a bonus for pursuing LEED silver,” Brumbaugh said. Brumbaugh is on the technical board of the U.S. Green Building Council’s sustainable sites committee, which supervises LEED credits for things such as light pollution, stormwater quality and green roofs.
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