So we had our Green Charette meeting and was that ever so interesting. I was told beforehand from an Architect buddy’s friend that this meeting is what all the consultants must go through. As LEED is still pretty new and most people don’t know what is going on we were lead through a powerpoint presentation. From what I saw the Mechanical Engineers and Architect have the most say in obtaining LEED points. Us, as Civils, basically meet the LA City SUSMP requirements to meet our LEED points. Just like I thought we don’t have any say in what goes on. I will update this slowly as I think about the meeting more.
We are doing a LEED for New Construction application for this project. I learned a lot at this meeting and have a ton of notes to pilfer through before posting more.
Frequently we have arrived to the building party with duct tape in hand to design out any flaws in the project. What does this mean? In order to save money the client tries to skip certain consultants when designing their Single Family Residence or Commercial Building. I can understand why this approach gets followed as even during good times, money is always tight. Who wants to spend money for the sake of spending money?
The problem is that sometimes these clients are given wrong information about what needs to be done to construct their building. The Architect is generally hired from the beginning to be the main overseer of a project. They know the project scope and what permits and plans need to be provided to ensure that the construction can start in a timely matter and the final outcome is a building that is both beautiful and safe.
The engineer designs the development of the land , drainage devices, and utilities. To engineer a site involves having more than just some spot elevation shots inside of the client’s property lines and calling that a grading plan. The contractor needs some idea of how to design the land to know how to place the building, make storm water run off the site, and any adjust for any elevation changes to design a useable building.
Hiring all the correct disciplines is key to making your construction stand out from everyone else.  Not only are these ideas key in the early design process, they also determine if an ugly engineered design ends up on a site to disguise the ugliness away. Many initial site plans have been disregarding set back distances and other ordinances that cause expensive variances accompanied with city hearings to be encountered.
Most building can be built more efficiently and end up as aesthetically pleasing as intended if all the consultants are designing the horse together from the beginning…before building the cart.
