Preserving the past…and the future
By: DAVID WRIGHT
Even as a child, Architect Tom Sanford was dreaming things into creation.
Playing underneath his father’s drafting tables, Sanford drew patterns, schemes and plans. He also spent countless warm summer days on piles of dirt, building cities and roads and crafting wooden devices in his father’s workshop.
While he and his father didn’t see eye to eye on everything, one thing they had in common as Tom grew up was an intense interest in new building technologies. While Tom flirted with the idea of a career in engineering, he fell in love with drawing classes and design studios and soon found himself lured by his father’s profession – architect.
Sanford’s dreams these days are a bit greener, in pursuit of environmentally responsible development. He has spent much of his 38-year professional career turning those dreams into reality.
Sanford is the Senior Partner at MSGS Architects in Olympia, Washington, a firm which carefully balances preserving historical structures and designing sustainable new projects with attention to architectural detail and a high level of design.
“I believe that to re-use the old gives us a connection to our past, both the immediate past and going back through the centuries,” Sanford said. “We must honor what has gone on before to even have a chance of realizing something of ourselves that will carry gracefully forward into the future. Where possible, I love to restore past work or to at least acknowledge the past where its details have been lost. I also believe that by studying the past we are able to create ever more exciting and relevant structures and spaces for the future.”
Sanford explained that using, renovating or restoring older and historical structures is recycling of embodied energy which saves resources for new structures from being consumed. Re-using also cuts down on transportation costs for materials and installation costs. Recycling also means less debris buried in landfills.
“To have any chance at all to slow our planet’s climate change, we must all work way beyond our comfort zone to develop buildings that may one day produce more energy than they consume,” Sanford said, “According to Ed Mazria and the 2030 Challenge, buildings and their construction and demolition consume approximately 60% of our national energy resources. To cut into that number will drastically change our national energy consumption. I believe that it is possible to produce a building that is completely carbon neutral, that is, it produces more energy over its life span than it consumes. That includes its initial construction and its eventual recycle (cradle to cradle).”
Sanford feels that the energy crises of 2008 has made more people aware of the need for sustainable buildings.
“Not only are designers and inventors becoming more creative and better informed,” Sanford said, “but more people than ever are beginning to connect the dots: over-consumption, energy shortages, energy dependencies, climate change or reduced energy consumption, carbon neutral energy, energy independence, environmental and climatic stability and sustainability.”
Sanford credits the work of organizations such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Green Globes and others for producing thorough score sheets of sustainable and green strategies and building concepts.
Among green concepts and trends that Sanford sees growing are:
- Site selection – Better understanding of building orientation; use of brown-field over green-field sites; use of sites near public transit; incorporation of bicycle transportation into site design; reduction/elimination of heat-islands.
- Water use – Landscaping with no irrigation; re-use of on-site collected water; minimal water consumption in buildings; on-site water treatment.
- Energy – More efficient mechanical equipment; natural ventilation; maximum controlled use of day-lighting.
- Materials and resources – Use of rapidly renewing building and finish materials; more recycled products.
Whatever lies ahead in the field of architectural design, Sanford will continue following his dreams of preserving the past as well as the future.
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David you really wrote a wonderful piece here and I am so thank full for all your assistance in getting this blog off the ground.
Tom’s first comments on day #1 “Thank you, David Wright, for doing such a great job of pulling together a lot of disparate information. It looks great and it was a wonderful gift from my wife and daughter. You put in a lot of work and it is appreciated.”
Patricias last blog post..Sparkling Tour with Bubbly Celebrations in Mind
Whoo Hooo! Glad to see you are finally up and running!
Yes, Whitney we are up and running…not to big crowds but up and at ‘em none the less. I think we did a pretty fair job..with much of your assistance and know how…Thank you
Patricias last blog post..Sparkling Tour with Bubbly Celebrations in Mind
There is some pretty fascinating info here! Thanks for the look see and I will check in frequently….
Whoohoo! You make me wanna get on my bike and ride! Happy New Year!
Congratulations on this new blog, Tom and Patricia. This looks terrific!
Davinas last blog post..The Quote Effect: Naughty, Nice & Niche Bloggers
meggin, Thank you for checking us out and welcome.
This was fun to put together and I am hoping more dialog will take place as time goes on.
Toms last blog post..Preserving the past…and the future
Davina,
Thank you for coming on over your encouraging words mean a great deal.
This is one impressive blog that really packs a great messaage. Congratulations. Design-wise, the way those link photos at the top float across and “open up” when you click on them is a thing of great beauty to me.
This blog will be very successful, I’m sure.
– Jannie, Patricia’s friend, (the one who wrote that song about needing a man with a chainsaw.)
Jannies last blog post..Like a bord on a wire, 2
Welcome Jannie,
Thank you for the compliments, I owe the good looks to my wife and daughter now if I can keep up my part of the plan here.
I hope it will increase communications between all the architects to increase Green and energy savings ideas.
I enjoyed your songs, I appreciate creative expressions and the arts like my wife says a good laugh opens up more creative ideas.
Glad to see you are getting a few views…
Great post! I never though of recycling the material on-site, brilliant. Its lots of little ideas like this that will really save us. Just like lots of different green chemicals replaced CFCs. (not great, but better)
The one thing that bugs me most is all those lovely south facing roofs with no solar panels. I think it should be a crime not to build a house without them. How much would it really add to the cost? How much would it save over the life of the panaels and house? Get ‘em off the grid.
Eyeteaguy
Eyeteaguys last blog post..What have you done for me lately?
Eyeteaguy,
I think your are right about the solar panels, but the 70s crisis past and greed prevailed so why do something like that?
I like all the new flexible and light weight solar panels now too and CA even has some that are like shingles.
We are still working on the funds to get started with a solar hot water heater…they are getting beautifully designed these days..
We need to see some code changes and subsidies or enticements to accomplish some of these things, but we know how to do them
Patricias last blog post..“When the Dog Bites, When the Bee Stings…”