As a designer how do you know when you achieve good design? Is filling the program requirements or getting the right number of seats in a space enough? Is pairing the right shade of paint with the carpet the answer? Or is it something more?

As I listened to the speakers at the dedication celebration for Ivy Tech Greencastle’s Center for Workforce and Economic Development, I was absorbed in their gowing enthusiasm and felt the magic of the power of good design. Their stories wove together like threads in a tapestry – each vibrant line intertwining with the next to create a fantastic whole cloth. From the Greencastle Mayor, Putnam County officials, State legislators, Greencastle business and industry owners, Ivy Tech Chancellor and Foundation, Students and faculty; all brought a passion and committment to the project to create a brighter future for Greencastle and the Wabash Valley Region.

On to this visionary cloth was added the gift of the Rokicki wetland site that set the tone for the architectural solution. The expanses of glass invites the daylight in and warms the interplay of textures and colors that creates a welcoming space for all who enter the doors. From the first day of class, this commuter school with historically low campus population began to experience a curious phenomenom. The students came and they stayed; lingering to enjoy the many opportunties to learn, study, and collaborate. Five years in the making, the promise of a brighter future is clearly on its’ way.

Congratulations Ivy Tech and Greencastle, Indiana!

Submitted By: Janet Thomas

How to do your part…last weekend a dream of four young girls’ became a reality at Brownsburg East Middle School when a team of volunteers, eager students along with the local firefighters volunteered their time and efforts. The school’s teaching staff and the school corporation’s Facility Director, John Voight, allowed the student group to pursue a vision of making a green roof. The dream of creating a living, green roof over the media center at BEMS was made possible through the assistance of a few local grants. The planning and research was done by the students and deligient staff members, like Ron Strahle, to pursue the dreams of the students. The education process will continue on this project not only for the students, but for the staff as well. The plantings will go dormant this fall/winter, so in the spring they will start to see the benefits of the “living roof.”

The kids in computer class can look out onto the garden. It will be interesting to see how the kids react to seeing green outside on the roof instead of rocks…only time will tell if this has an impact on their learning or attention spans.

Has anyone read anything or a come across a study that has been done on the effects of learning near a green roof?

Submitted By: Donna Metallic

At 6:30 a.m. on Friday, September 18, 2009 a small, enthusiastic and slightly crazy group of Architecture for Humanity – Indy members assembled at the corner of Meridian and Washington Streets. By 8:00 a.m. two metered parking spaces had magically transformed into park space and the first International PARK-(ing) day in Indianapolis had begun.

Originally invented in 2005 by Rebar, a San Francisco art and design studio, PARK-(ing) Day challenges people to rethink the way streets are used and reinforces the need for broad-based changes to urban infrastructure. “In urban centers around the world, inexpensive curbside parking results in increased traffic, wasted fuel and more pollution,” says Rebar’s Matthew Passmore. “The strategies that generated these conditions are not sustainable, nor do they promote a healthy, vibrant urban human habitat. PARK-(ing) Day is about re-imagining the possibilities of the metropolitan landscape.”

Architecture for Humanity Indianapolis Chapter was excited about hosting this fun, one day annual international event that afforded an opportunity to bring awareness to creatively thinking about how we as Hoosiers can utilize our urban spaces in downtown Indianapolis. This event celebrated and promoted sustainability, civic engagement and environmental awareness.

Many thanks to everyone who donated materials, participated or stopped to talk. Hope to see you next year!

Parking Day

Submitted By: Janet Thomas

With the onslot of students moving into Indiana University for the beginning of another year, I had a chance to examine if the campus was doing their part to be sustainable to the community at large. The campus does recycle all aluminum, glass, plastic 1-7, paper, news print, and cardboard. In fact, every dormitory and classroom building has recycle bins for the co-mingling of these items. Particularly on move-in day, each dorm has a cardboard dumpster large enough to take all the cardboard for the entire week. They further educate all students with an all-dorm floor meeting to inform the residents of all opportunities that each person can take to ensure the 3R’s – recycle, reuse, reduce!

Other examples are in the food services areas of Wright, Foster, and Read Quads. Here the students are informed by use of a large information center at the point-of-disposal on how to sort their plate and utensil waste into recycle bins.

Within the dorm rooms of Wright Quad, each resident has a restricted showerhead, faucet and toilet power flusher to help increase water efficiency. Each room has flourescent lighting and blinds to help control the use of energy. Also, each student can choose to purchase a water bottle and the water refills are free! No redundant purchase of plastic bottles.

The IU campus has developed a great transit system. Any person can ride the IU bus system at no cost and the Bloomington bus transit is free to students with their ID. The endless bike racks and persons walking is very evident on any given day as well. They also provide bike lanes on most campus roads. All are a great way to save energy and promote individual health. And, with OnCourse, the IU website, the university has tried to become more paperless. Here are posted all assignments, class syllabi, lecture slides, grades and handouts. All important ways to conserve energy and materials. Not to mention that students can return books for cash or drop off to a recycle bin, if unable to return for cash.

But the quest to be green does not stop on the campus. With some students choosing to live in off-campus apartments or homes, there is still the need to be considerate of potential waste. As furnishings go, a student has the option of renting their furniture or, if they are leaving an apartment, they can sell to the next student that is moving in. This is a great solution for the ever changing campus.

But is there room for more greening? Always, and the IU campus might be interesting in hearing more.
Do you have any suggestions to pass on to IU?

Submitted by: Julie Knight

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, one of the most recently added words – “BLOG” is a verb, and it is defined as: To write entries in, add material to, or maintain a weblog. And so, one might ask himself or herself the following: “To BLOG or not to BLOG that is the question …” or in other words, is blogging a necessary form of communication? Since our firm has bought onto the rationale of blogging, our Firm has jumped into the blogging pool with both feet, and will be experiencing a Blogfest effort this month.

With that said, I was interested in knowing if you receive daily Management or Marketing e-mail Ticklers & Refreshers from: Simple Truths – Founder Mac Anderson; Brand Acceleration – Founder Jim Walton; Work is not for Sissies – Founder Glenn Shepard; Profiles International; and Leadership – from Leadership Institute of Indianapolis … to name a few. If so, how valuable do you find these Management/Marketing 101 articles to be? If not, what turns you off about them? Do you receive any other similar words of wisdom that you would favorably want to share with others?

Listed below are just a few of the many words of wisdom Links that you can refer to in order to help inspire others … enjoy:

Simple Truths

Brand Acceleration

Glenn Shepard

Profiles International

Leadership Institute of Indianapolis

Submitted By: Gary Pino

As you may know, i.d.o. Incorporated’s office located in downtown Indianapolis was the first LEED certified building in the city, achieving the LEED-Silver designation. We (i.d.o. Associates) are all very proud of this that we could all work together to achieve this accomplishment and be the pacesetter in LEED design in Indianapolis.

But we didn’t stop there! To further support our dedication to environmental design, several of our associates have taken their commitment to environmental stewardship and passion into their own homes. I will admit that I was slow to practice environmental stewardship in my own home. However, after being intimately involved with the LEED process, I realized how simple it is to live a “green” lifestyle!

For instance, I was never really into recycling, at home, due to the extra costs involved…However, after researching, I found that my little town actually had a recycling drop zone located just ½ mile from my home that consists of basic recycling of paper products, aluminum, steel, glass and plastics (Type 1 and 2)! I didn’t realize how much recyclable waste my husband and I produced until we began recycling. It was eye opening. Now I can’t help but to consider if everyone took the small steps and initiative to recycle, how much waste could we divert from the landfills that not only are an eye sore, but also contribute to the deterioration of our precious environment!

I could provide a nearly endless amount of simple steps to help you turn your homes “Green” (such as composting, implementing a cistern and programmable thermostats). However, I will open it up to you to provide some of your own ideas and practices to share! i.d.o. Inc., and its associates look forward to hearing what you are doing to help green your own homes and our world!

Submitted By: Amanda Medlen

June 1 marked the competition deadline for a global initiative sponsored by the Open Architecture Network and Architecture for Humanity, the 2009 Classroom Challenge.

“According to the World Bank, educating all children worldwide will require the construction of 10 million new classrooms in more than 100 countries by 2015. At the same time, millions of existing classrooms are in serious need of repair and refurbishment.
The 2009 Open Architecture Challenge invites the global design and construction community to collaborate with primary and secondary school teachers and students to create smarter, safer, and more sustainable learning environments.” Orient Global

The Indy chapter of Architecture for Humanity partnered with the Project School to develop proposals for expanding their existing facility while embracing their wholistic teaching philosophy. The Project School is a cornerstone redevelopment of the Martindale on the Monon district on the near north side of Indianapolis. My collaborator’s Marco Landron, Rene Martinez, Javier Rodriguez and I lent our vision and time to participate in this exciting initiative.

To view our design submission go to:
http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/projects/4964

To learn more about the Open Architecture Network go to:
http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.org

For more on Architecture for Humanity Indianapolis and the Project School please visit:

http://www.afh-indy.org and http://www.indianapolisprojectschool.org

For any questions about Architecture for Humanity or the Open Architecture Network please contact Janet Thomas

Just got the word that Governor Daniels has signed the interior design bill………

On Tuesday, May 12, 2009, the caption above came to me via e-mail on my way into work. Instantly, nearly fifteen years of work towards this one goal flashed across my mind. The success of this bill cannot be discussed without mentioning all the hard work and effort of many people and an accumulation of many years of planning.

Most importantly………we never gave up. Sometimes it took a change in the cast and like this year, it took a change in strategy. This years strategy leveraged our collective experiences, relationships and political awareness with a new concept. Thus a “Registry for Interior Designers” outside the formal framework of the PLA” or “professional license agency” was born.

The FINAL Synopsis of the 2009 Bill:

1. Professional registration for Interior Designers; requires the professional licensing agency to create an electronic registry for Interior Designers.
2. Establishes registration criteria for Interior Designers based upon the requirements set by NCIDQ (The National Council for Interior Design Qualification).
3. To become grandfathered before December 31, 2011 the following must be completed:
• Received at least two (2) years of interior design education & has practiced in the field of interior design for at least Ten (10) years.
OR
• Has practiced interior design for at least fifteen (15) years.

To all my professional colleagues and fellow stakeholders, I commend each and everyone who contributed to our effort. Through this collective effort, we have secured a better future for the discipline of interior design. We have now joined forces with 26 other states in the US, Canada and Country’s throughout the world that have enacted Interior Design Registration Laws.

Most importantly, we have elevated the value of our profession for young professionals and our students who are already becoming our State’s next generation of “creative professional talent”!

Now the real work begins! With recognition comes responsibility. According to our states numbers there are nearly 1200 interior designers in our state (338) who have passed the NCIDQ exam. This leaves approximately 800 interior design professionals who may qualify under the registries requirements.

Now we must prepare an aggressive outreach campaign to not only reach our own professionals in industry but we must also reach many other allied professionals and stakeholders; Architects, Engineers, Contractors, landscape Architects, Developers, Real Estate Brokers, Facility Managers, Students, Educators, Clients and Industry Partners such as Product Manufacturers, Product Representatives and Furniture Dealers; to name a few! We must be prepared to THINK about them and their interest as it relates to the discipline of interior design, INFORM them of this new law, and EDUCATE.

We must prepare a plan that works to minimize the divisions between professions and stresses the importance of consistent and accurate representation of the discipline of interior design.

As we move forward, I welcome your thoughts, ideas and comments. For now, I’m signing off with a big smile on my face!

Submitted by;

Jill Mendoza

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has traditionally been the domain of the corporate sector and has been well researched in large organizations. Small and medium-sized enterprises have received much less attention. A recent study of 24 small socially responsible enterprises in the United Kingdom found good examples of CSR limitations and opportunities by exploring exemplary characteristics of the companies.

Key areas of investigation were the influence of managerial values, the nature of CSR activities, motivation for and benefits from engaging in CSR and challenges faced. The study demonstrated that small enterprises tend to learn through networking and from their peers. CSR initiatives, therefore, require strong leadership or “championing” from highly-motivated individuals like owner–managers and examples set by other companies.

At i.d.o., we strive to be such an exemplary company and are pleased to share one of our CSR activities. Being a smaller company does create both limitations and opportunities related to CSR. We found that to overcome the limitations – a most notable one being money – we have to be creative in identifying meaningful opportunities that are appropriate and possible for us.

One example is our ongoing relationship with the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis. A few years ago, we assisted with the interiors as part of a major renovation of their local Jordan facility. We were inspired and gratified by the overwhelming appreciation the YMCA staff showed for the contributions i.d.o. brought to the overall project. A few weeks following the completion of that project, we received a call from a manager who needed assistance with a small project in his facility. Shortly thereafter, we got yet another request from a different facility.

These requests were small in scope but critically important to each of these managers and their facility. We determined that the organization had a real need for ongoing facility management support. Furthermore, facility managers had a sincere desire make the best, most cost-effective and appropriate decisions when it came to facility use. With that, i.d.o. prepared an unsolicited proposal for the YMCA’s leadership. Our proposal detailed an “in-kind” service program for all the YMCA’s facilities in Central Indiana. We set up a process whereby the managers could access a form on-line and request an i.d.o. designer’s assistance. All requests are managed against a monthly budget of 24 hours (3 days) of design work a month at no cost to the YMCA. Each month, at least one design associate is prepared to spend time working on a small YMCA project.

The YMCA of Greater Indianapolis operates 12 branches serving more than 171,000 people from very diverse neighborhoods. The organization maintains a long and rich tradition of building strong kids, strong families, and strong communities. They do so much more than serve the people in their communities – they help them thrive.

It is our hope that our small contribution of time and talent each month helps assure that the facilities and their interior environments remain as beautiful, functional and supportive as the important services their organization provides to our community.
We have learned that, as a small business, participation in the community goes beyond offering sales and quality service. We have demonstrated that a company need not be a large corporation or commit significant revenue to be a conscientious and socially responsible corporate citizen. At i.d.o., responsible corporate citizenship means being involved in positive ways to help others, finding ways to offer goods and services that make the world better, being a good neighbor, providing fair wages to those who work for us, and supplying the best goods and services that we can at a price that those needing our services can afford. As owners/employees of a small business, we aren’t only business people. We are also participants in the community within which we live and work.

Have you considered how you and your business might be more socially responsible? How can you help cultivate and grow positive change in your community that benefits both you and your neighbors?
We welcome you to share your ideas and experience on corporate social responsibility on our blog.

Submitted By: Jill Mendoza

This past weekend I had to opportunity and privilege to attend our National IIDA (International Interior Design Association) Headquarters for the bi-annual Chapter Leadership Conference (CLC) in Chicago. During the weekend, I was reminded how important networking can be. For example, I had the opportunity, this weekend, to meet other professionals from across the United States (and even some International cities). What a terrific experience! I realized that if I should ever need to relocate or just need some new ideas or suggestions from someone outside of my “day-to-day circle,” I now have acquaintances around the world that I can turn to!

Personally, I have found that being involved with professional boards and organizations has helped to influence me personally and professionally. I have gained and reinforced several skills such as, forming, directing, and encouraging committees, team work and delegation, public speaking, and effectively conducting business meetings… and that is just to name a few!

I could go on and on about my passion for the profession and my desire to share it with everyone I come in contact with. However, I will leave you with this: The friends and connections that I made through networking have been nothing but positive and I appreciate each and every one of them!

There are many volunteer organizations in your individual communities. While all organizations may not be for everyone, I encourage you find one that interests you or that you have a passion for… It could be one of the best “moves” of your career!

Please share your passion and what your professional organizations have meant to you. Do you have a personal story of how it has benefitted you? Or, if you would like to know more or would like to get “plugged-in” please do not hesitate to contact me.

Submitted by: Amanda Medlen