March 17, 2011 (New York, NY) Top international design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman is pleased to join The Green House project and NCB Capital Impact in announcing the launch of The Green House Prototype Design Package. The Prototype will help providers develop small home senior living communities with greater efficiency and cost savings—all to the standards of care developed by The Green House project. The Prototype Design Package was launched at the AAHSA Annual Meeting & Exposition in Los Angeles.
The Green House Prototype Design Package reflects all of the operational and architectural lessons learned to date. It also reflects a design that has been carefully crafted to deliver a comfortable and efficient environment that becomes a real home. The Prototype can be delivered more quickly and for a lower cost than a custom design, and its use ensures a streamlined approval process by The Green House Project.
Daniel Cinelli FAIA, one of Perkins Eastman’s senior living principals and an advocate of small house design solutions says of the Prototype, “With more communities looking for alternatives to traditional skilled nursing environments, The Green House Prototype Design Package can empower more providers across the country to create communities where seniors can experience quality care in a de-institutionalized environment.”
The Green House Prototype Design Package provides plans, a finishes package, and furniture specifications for a single-story 7,400 sf home comprising ten beds, a country kitchen, and support areas. The prototype was designed with the scale, imagery, and detailing of a traditional single-family house. While the prototype was designed utilizing the Arts and Crafts style prevalent in many parts of the county, it can easily be modified for other regional styles. By utilizing the Prototype, providers can realize an 8.5-month reduction to the overall project schedule and potentially more than $80,000 compared to the traditional green house design and review process. As a complement to the Prototype Design Package, Perkins Eastman is developing a design guideline that will provide general guidelines spaces adjacencies and programming detail for custom-designed homes.
About Perkins Eastman
Perkins Eastman is among the top architecture and design firms in the world. The firm prides itself on inventive and compassionate design that enhances the quality of the human experience. Because of its depth and range, Perkins Eastman takes on assignments from niche buildings to complex projects that enrich whole communities. The firm’s practice areas include education, housing, healthcare, senior living, corporate interiors, cultural institutions, public sector facilities, retail, office buildings, and urban design. In 2010, Perkins Eastman announced it would merge with Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects (EE&K), significantly strengthening both practices with an international total of nearly 600 employees. Perkins Eastman provides award- winning design through its domestic offices in New York, NY; Boston, MA; Arlington, VA; Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Oakland, CA; Pittsburgh, PA; and Stamford, CT; and internationally in Dubai, UAE; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Mumbai, India; Shanghai, China; and Toronto, Canada.
About The Green House Project
The Green House Project creates small, intentional communities for groups of elders and staff to focus on living full and vibrant lives. The Green House homes encourage elders to make themselves at home. Elders can decorate their private room and bath with their own belongings. They have easy access to all areas of the house, including the kitchen, laundry, outdoor garden and patio. The Green House model was developed by Dr. William Thomas and is rooted in the Eden Alternative, a model for cultural change within nursing facilities. Dr. Thomas' vision is to build a new type of residence that will be a real home to the elders who live there, while meeting regulatory requirements.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
RTKL names Lance Josal president and CEO
Lance K. Josal FAIA has been named President and CEO of RTKL Associates Inc., the international planning, design and engineering firm. Josal succeeds RTKL’s current President and CEO, David C. Hudson AIA, who is retiring from the firm. The changes will take effect on 1 September 2009.
| Aug 11, 2010
Balfour Beatty agrees to acquire Parsons Brinckerhoff for $626 million
Balfour Beatty, the international engineering, construction, investment and services group, has agreed to acquire Parsons Brinckerhoff for $626 million. Balfour Beatty executives believe the merger will be a major step forward in accomplishing a number of Balfour Beatty’s objectives, including establishing a global professional services business of scale, creating a leading position in U.S. civil infrastructure, particularly in the transportation sector, and enhancing its global reach.
| Aug 11, 2010
Construction unemployment rises to 17.1% as another 64,000 construction workers are laid off in September
The national unemployment rate for the construction industry rose to 17.1 percent as another 64,000 construction workers lost their jobs in September, according to an analysis of new employment data released today. With 80 percent of layoffs occurring in nonresidential construction, Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, said the decline in nonresidential construction has eclipsed housing’s problems.
| Aug 11, 2010
Billings at U.S. architecture firms exceeds $40 billion annually
In the three-year period leading up to the current recession, gross billings at U.S. architecture firms increased nearly $16 billion from 2005 and totaled $44.3 billion in 2008. This equates to 54 percent growth over the three-year period with annual growth of about 16 percent. These findings are from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Business of Architecture: AIA Survey Report on Firm Characteristics.
| Aug 11, 2010
CHPS debuts high-performance building products database
The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) made a new tool available to product manufacturers to help customers identify building products that contribute to sustainable, healthy, built environments. The tool is an online, searchable database where manufacturers can list products that have met certain environmental or health standards ranging from recycled content to materials that contribute to improved indoor air quality.
| Aug 11, 2010
ICC launches green construction code initiative for commercial buildings
The International Code Council has launched its International Green Construction Code (IGCC) initiative, which will aim to reduce energy usage and the carbon footprint of commercial buildings.Entitled “IGCC: Safe and Sustainable By the Book,” the initiative is committed to develop a model code focused on new and existing commercial buildings. It will focus on building design and performance.
| Aug 11, 2010
Green Building Initiative launches two certification programs for green building professionals
The Green Building Initiative® (GBI), one of the nation’s leading green building organizations and exclusive provider of the Green Globes green building certification in the United States, today announced the availability of two new personnel certification programs for green building practitioners: Green Globes Professional (GGP) and Green Globes Assessor (GGA).
| Aug 11, 2010
Potomac Valley Brick launches brick design competition with $10,000 grand prize
Potomac Valley Brick presents Brick-stainable: Re-Thinking Brick a design competition seeking integrative solutions for a building using clay masonry units (brick) as a primary material.
