Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Memorial Future

Shelburne Falls Memorial Hall, home of Pothole Pictures and Metropolitan Opera simulcasts, is in the beginning planning stages of a major renovation including; energy upgrades, new seating, theatrical upgrades and other improvements.

Austin Design provided some pro bono visualization and planning help in order to get the project off the ground and we look forward to helping make this project a reality.



Monday, June 13, 2011

Town of Worthington















Chris Palames, Accessibility Specialist, and Austin Design have teamed up together to assist the Town of Worthington with its ADA Self-Evaluation and Transition Plan. 

On Friday, June 10th, we met with Evan Johnson and Peggy O'Neal at the Worthington Town Hall to discuss the approach and processes involved with bringing a town's public spaces up to code in all matters of accessibility.

Chris Palames explained that in the town's current state there would be structural barriers and non-structural barriers to those with disabilities, along with structural and non-structural solutions. For example, a structural solution is to build a ramp that leads into a public space where only stairs existed previously. A non-structural solution, on the other hand, is to move an activity to an accessible location in town if the first location chosen was not an accessible one.

Throughout the morning we moved around the Town of Worthington's public spaces documenting, noting, and measuring entrance ways, walkways, thresholds, types of door handles, wall protrusions (especially dangerous to the blind, in particular if the protrusion protrudes away from the wall more than 4" and is above the height where a cane can detect it), slopes of ramps, handrails, bathrooms, designated handicap parking spaces, turnaround room for wheelchair accessibility, sink/mirror/counter heights, quality of the materials of flooring, walkways, ramps, and more.




Friday, June 3, 2011

Northampton Deep Energy Retrofit

 Sketchup rendering of proposed home















Great progress is being made on a client’s home near downtown Northampton, MA.  Implementing architect Bill Austin’s designs for this custom Arts-and-Crafts home, are builder Joe Kayan and his crew. The homeowner, Bill, and Joe are working closely together to ensure the new house is extraordinarily energy efficient.  The craftsman-style house is slowly taking shape as the former ranch home sheds its old skin and comes nicely into its new look. The new energy-efficient house will feature:
  • R-60 attic ceiling
  • R-36 exterior walls
  • R-38 basement ceiling
  • U-0.30 Marvin windows
  • Ground-source heat pump for forced hot air and DHW
  • Natural daylighting throughout








Then: Front Facade (South)











 Now: Front Facade (South)











Then: South-East Corner











Now: South-East Corner











Then: East Facade











Now: East Facade










Then: North Facade











Now: North Facade











Then: North-West Corner














Now: North-West Facade











Then: Partial West Facade










Now: Partial West Facade

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Solar Charging Stations



Duo-Gard is a leading company in the development of solar-powered charging stations for cars, bikes, scooters, carts, and motorcycles. For more information on these net zero energy charging stations: Duo-Gard Net Zero Energy Solar Charging Stations.

The U.S. Department of Energy has good information on Electric Vehicles (EV's) and locations of EV charging stations across the United States. To read more on this, please click here: Electric Vehicles and Charging Station Locations.

Currently, out of the three EV charging stations in the state of Massachusetts, one is located  at the Courtyard Marriott Hadley hotel in Hadley, Mass. This station is at the 240V level and includes these other EV charger standards.

Courtyard Marriott Hadley EV charging station