Line for Blue Bottle Coffee at their Linden Alley Kiosk

Linden St is undergoing a welcoming transformation of what the designers are calling the birth of an outdoor living room, otherwise known as Linden Living Alley. The Blue Bottle coffee shop has drawn a crowd of people over the last few years that have had to assemble and enjoy their coffee along a narrow sidewalk. During peak coffee hours, especially on the weekend, these people spill over into Linden St in order to find refuge from the tight sidewalk conditions and to escape the long line. Sherwood Design Engineers have teamed up with Winslow Architecture to design a pedestrian oriented street that encapsulates the multi functionality of what a city street is about. This design integrates an isolated driving alley dedicated to one lane of traffic, including traffic calming and safety measures and transforming the remainder of the street corridor to landscaping and urban pedestrian space.

This project is scheduled for completion around October 1^st 2010 so go and enjoy a latte in a space dedicate to the people.

Architecture in the City hosted by AIA-SF will be sponsoring a tour led by David Winslow covering the various pedestrian alleys, including Linden Lane, throughout the city.

The conversion of city streets and alleys to pedestrian friendly zones has garnered some support and opposition. Check out the Socketsite discussion forum that has developed some popularity recently surrounding this topic and specially Linden Lane.

Davis Court August 26th

The Davis Court project is progressing nicely. According to Drew, Sherwood’s project manager, one infiltration system CU Structural Soil backfill is halfway completed. “CU Structural Soil is a type of soil that allows trees to grow underneath concrete without damaging the surface or surrounding area,” he says, “which if not used can cause major damage to sidewalks and other structures from tree roots.” The infiltration piping is being constructed now, to be followed by the structural soil and planter beds backfill. The remaining demolition is completed and site infrastructure is being installed. Stay tuned for more updates as work continues!

- Honey Bee colonies around the world are disappearing at alarming rates. Many people suspect this may be because of global warming or other warming trends. Check out this new documentary which dives into the question and mystery of Colony Collapse Disorder.

-A fashonista is blogging about her experience transforming old thrift store finds into chic modern pieces all for the sake of being green. Check out her “Julie & Julia” style blog here, where she daily updates each piece she transforms.

-E-waste is now one of the EPA’s top 4 priorities next to Global Warming, Reducing Exposure to Toxic Chemicals, Expanding Access to Clean Water, and Improving Air Quality. Read about the EPA’s international priorities here.

-The beginning of long term damage from the Gulf oil spill is starting to take effect. Oil droplets lining the ocean floor in the Gulf appear to be having a toxic effect on bacteria and phytoplankton, a photosynthetic microorganism that serves as a vital food for fish and other marine life.

-Imagine fueling your car and eating your toast with the same thing… Butter!

- Russian fires raise the question of radioactive fumes being emitted from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster sites over 24 years ago.

- Portugal is stepping up in the realm of clean energy, almost 45% of their energy comes from renewable sources. They also plan to close two power plants by 2014 and reduce use of the others.

- Developing a sustainable or green house may not be as green as you expected. Katherine Salant gets us thinking a little bit outside the box when it comes to sustainable construction.

- Scientists report massive coral bleaching occurring in Indonesia. 60% of the corals off the island of Sumatra are bleached due to global warming. To learn more about coral bleaching read about it here.

- California’s cool summer competes with the East Coast’s record highs. Enjoy today’s warm weather SF! It’s about time.

Is Back!! We’ve missed updating you with our weekly edition of the Green News You Can Use, so we’ve brought it back. As always, please feel free to give us some ideas and don’t be afraid to leave us a comment.

· BP has successfully plugged the Gulf of Mexico oil well through their “static kill” operation, but has also fired 10,000 cleanup employees.

· Can you spend a weekend without consuming oil? One organization is asking thousands of people around the country to take the pledge. Can you spend the weekend without buying makeup, clothes, or sporting goods, let alone not driving? Take the pledge here.

· New York, Chicago, and Vermont are following Portland’s footsteps in setting up colored bike lanes to promote biking in the city. View SF’s newest addition on Fell Street here.

· The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced today that there are now 6,132 farmers markets in the country, up 16 percent from last year. Find your local farmers market here.

· UN Climate Change Conference is taking place in Bonn Germany August 2^nd – 6^th. Follow updates here.

· The Plastiki lands in Sydney after a voyage across the pacific in a boat made entirely of plastic bottles.

· Mother Nature made a better sports drink? What we think you should know about the new coconut water craze.

· Would you swim the English Channel for environmental awareness? This woman is.

· Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota now get 10% of their electricity from wind.

· Worst floods on record kill thousands in Pakistan.

· Solar power initiatives are on the rise.

· Green LEED certified correctional facilities are becoming more popular in the US as HOK designs the newest in Atlanta.

· The Galapagos Islands have been removed from the endangered species list.

· According to a recent study, 80% of rainforests — which hold a full half of the world’s plant and animal species — stand to be destroyed by climate change starting now.

In urban areas most people can’t imagine, that there was once, or still is a stream underneath them. Many municipal urban planners are bringing these streams “to light,” by a process called daylighting. This includes bringing a stream to light, from underground, often by integrating storm water management and ecosystems. Daylighting can have many benefits, including ecological, economic, and social. We wrote about a daylighting project in Seoul, South Korea about a year ago. Since then daylighting has gotten exposure from cities like Seattle, Berkeley, Portland, and our very own San Francisco. Most of these streams and creeks, which have not been visible since the 1800’s are now viewable as sewers and pipes transformed underground in order to make room for urban development. With global warming on the rise, many cities cannot handle the pressure of rising stormwater runoff, often backing up water treatment plants, which directly affects the entire city. Urban planners are turning to daylighting as a resource to relieve pressure from stormwater runoff as well as connecting people with their water resources.

Seoul Stream Daylighted and Turned Into a Beautiful Public Space

Seoul’s landmark daylighting project involved tearing down a major divisive freeway through the heart of the city and replacing in, instead of with another vehicular transportation network, with an enhancement of the natural environment, a community amenity, and a stormwater management improvement.

Thornton Creek in North Seattle has just recently been daylighted in collaboration with a mixed-use, residential, commercial, and office, development adjacent to the Northgate Mall.

While daylighting seems like an extremely attractive option for urban water system improvements, there are also many issues related to daylighting. One of our engineer’s Adam writes, “While it’s easy to tout the benefits of daylighting from an academic or professional perspective, American municipalities often get caught up on fiscal constraints, searching for exaggerated untruths to defend inaction. Benefits vary depending on the location and scale of the drainage network, what habitats are associated with the stream, the local climate conditions, existing stormwater management conditions and infrastructure, and the scope of the daylighting project.”

Recently San Francisco has pondered upon the thought of using daylighting throughout the city, which would relive stormwater runoff pressures and would expose watersheds to the public. Show your support for the use of daylighting in San Francisco by attending the next community meeting here.

August 3rd 2010

Here you can see that there have been two big holes dug approximately 2,00 square feet by 4 feet deep. This is the future location of the planter bays. Also, this area that was excavated has exposed some underground utilities that are to be relocated.  You can see the plans below for a more detailed vision.

I am pleased to officially announce that my first published book about Sherwood’s work, “Sustainable Infrastructure: The Guide to Green Engineering and Design”, is being published by John Wiley and Sons and will be on store shelves this September! The book is a complete guide to integrating sustainable strategies into infrastructure planning and design, and it has been literally two years in the works. To give you a brief preview of what the book will contain, here is the table of contents:

Chapter 1: The Process of Applied Sustainable Engineering Design
Chapter 2: Sustainable Infrastructure Frameworks
Chapter 3: Water Conservation & Supply
Chapter 4: Integrated Water Management
Chapter 5: Energy and Greenhouse Gases
Chapter 6: Sustainable Site Planning, Built Systems and Material Flows
Chapter 7: City-Scale Approaches
Chapter 8: Applications for Sustainable Communities
Chapter 9: Building-Scale Sustainable Infrastructure

There will be two book launch parties, to be held at the AIA in San Francisco and New York City. For these events, which we are calling the Sustainable Infrastructure Summit, The Sherwood Institute and other sustainable infrastructure leaders will come together to host a forward thinking discussion. There will be a reception with a discussion and Q&A. We hope that you can save the date to attend these events and celebrate with us!

September 14, 2010:
AIA NY Panel Discussion + book signing reception
536 LaGuardia Place (in the Hines Gallery)
NY, NY 10012

September 22, 2010:
AIA SF Panel Discussion + book signing reception
130 Sutter Street (in the Gallery)
San Francisco, CA 94104

We hope you can make it, since in addition to these being fun events you won’t want to miss, you will also be the first on your block to see (and buy) the book in person. You can also pre-order the book on Amazon or direct from Wiley.

- Bry

Davis Street between Jackson and Washington streets in downtown San Francisco is currently undergoing a renovation. This urban space which is privately owned has traditionally been used as a corridor for pedestrians traveling to and from Market St and the downtown area to the waterfront properties. This space is also the entrance to the parking structure for the Gateway living complex as well as a drop off for a restaurant. This combination of private and public use has created an opportunity to transform this site from a difficult and hazardous experience to a new open urban plaza. The design team of RHAA landscape architects and planners, Endres Ware structural engineers, Ned Kahn artist, CMS fountain specialist, Pankow Construction and Sherwood Design Engineers were challenged by the property owner to develop a space that invites pedestrians, allows for integrated vehicular traffic and creates a space for the public and private.

The site improvements will include a relatively flat seamless pedestrian friendly plaza space, a unique stormwater collection, conveyance, treatment and groundwater infiltration system integrated into the tree planting zones and an art feature to highlight the uniqueness of the space. The stormwater system was designed to meet LEED credit 6.1 as dictated by the new San Francisco Stormwater Guidelines for Combined Sewer Areas recently adopted by the city. The runoff from the site will be separated into four microsheds, with the two larger sheds discharged into sequential hydraulically connected planter beds that will receive the stormwater, treat through plantings and amended structural soil and then infiltrate into the favorable sandy soil below the site. This system was designed to handle at least a 2 year 24 hour storm event.

We plan to upload daily photos of the progress of this project. At completion we hope to have a flip-book of the construction of this project! We hope you will follow along, and if you pass by the site,  email us your pictures! (press@sherwoodengineers.com)

July 30th 2010

July 28th 2010

July 27th 2010

July 22nd, 2010

July 21st 2010

July 20th 2010

July 16th 2010

July 13th 2010

Sherwood, global leaders in Sustainable Infrastructure design and planning, announced today that John Paul Peterson has been appointed to lead their Energy Infrastructure and Systems Design efforts. This addition expands their expertise of energy system design at all scales of planning, building integrated systems, energy performance, modeling, and life cycle cost analysis. For years Peterson has been at the leading edge in designing Zero Energy and LEED Platinum projects throughout North America.

“We see increasing demand for energy systems expertise and passive building design knowledge at the planning level from our partners and clients across the North America and Asia,” said Bry Sarté, founder and CEO of Sherwood. “We’re thrilled to have John Paul join the team and lead the Energy Infrastructure and Systems Design efforts for our firm. His experience and efforts will take our sustainable infrastructure services to a higher level and bring deeper value to our clients.”
“Sustainable Infrastructure is all about understanding and optimizing resources flows within, around and through a site,” said Peterson. “This layer of expertise is synergistic to Sherwood’s leading knowledge of infrastructure design solutions, and will allow our clients and partners to leverage a more complete site resource evaluation and plan. Sherwood has proven itself as a company that values creative problem solving; I’m very excited to be a part of this visionary team!”

Before joining Sherwood, Peterson was an Associate at Stantec Consulting in San Francisco (formally KEEN Engineering). Peterson holds a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Messiah College in Pennsylvania and is a registered Mechanical Engineer in the State of California. You can follow him on twitter at @petersonjp.

Bry Sarte, Executive Director at the Sherwood Institute, delivered a lecture yesterday at a special forum hosted by Stanford University’s Center for Sustainable Development and Global Competitiveness. In his talk, “Regenerative Urbanism: City-Scale Sustainable Water and Energy Strategies in China,” Bry discussed the Institute’s work in the Chinese city of Langfang to create and implement new policies in the area. The Sherwood Institute is working to create a comprehensive policy package for the city. The package will address urban water issues regarding stormwater, wastewater, rainwater harvesting, and general green design principles in water management. You can learn more about Langfang in this recent post on the Sherwood Engineers blog.

Stanford’s Center for Sustainable Development and Global Competitiveness believes that all future economic and business developments should be based upon environmental concern. They are working to fulfill this mission by promoting and teaching business strategies and leadership practices that will promote a sustainable and green environment.
The forum brought together speakers, academics, professionals and students to discuss opportunities and challenges in providing services in the environmental services sector in China.