Sustainable Design Blog

The beautiful offices of Lakewood Ranch Plastic Surgery & Skin Care and Lakewood Ranch Family Medicine have earned the LEED Certification.  This is the first private physician’s office and medical spa in the state of Florida to be LEED certified.   In honor of this, Drs Joshua and Andrea Kreithen will host a party and LEED certification ceremony on Tuesday, December 7, from 4 until 7 pm. The office is located at 6310 Health Park Way, Suite #110 behind the Lakewood Ranch Medical Center.

The office space is recognized for energy use, lighting, water and material use. The medical practices have also incorporated a variety of sustainable strategies in their everyday practices. Ultimately, LEED certified facilities reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to an overall healthier environment.

Michael Carlson, AIA, LEED AP of Carlson Studio Architecture, based in Sarasota, served as the architect for the project. The company is a recognized leader in green building design in Florida. They were able to incorporate natural light, renewable resources and overall healthy design to create a space that is pleasant, calm, healthy and relaxing.

“Utilizing as many sustainable building practices as possible, our goal was to make our office a beautiful place that promotes a healthier environment,”  states Joshua Kreithen, MD Board Certified Plastic Surgeon. “We use energy, water and other natural resources more efficiently, in turn reducing our impact on the environment while creating a sense of health, serenity and well-being.” “It was an easy decision for us to ‘go green.’ We know that a LEED certified area is healthier for our clients and our staff. It’s the right thing to do.”

The LEED ceremony will take place at 4 pm. Immediately following, there will be a party for the public. Tickets are $5 in advance and $10 at the door. There will be demonstrations of services and products available at the health care facility.

U.S. Green Building Council

The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council is committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings.

With a community comprising 80 local affiliates, more than 18,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 155,000 LEED Professional Credential holders, USGBC is the driving force of an industry that is projected to contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product from 2009-2013.

LEED

The U.S. Green Building Council's LEED green building certification system is the foremost program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. More than 32,000 projects are currently participating in the commercial and institutional LEED rating systems, comprising over 9.6 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 114 countries.

By using less energy, LEED-certified buildings save money for families, businesses and taxpayers; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and contribute to a healthier environment for residents, workers and the larger community.

For more information, visit www.usgbc.org.

By WALKER MEADE Correspondent
Herald Tribune

There is no better evidence of the great change in our attitude toward breast cancer than the pink-ribboned bumper stickers that we see all over town: "Save the Ta-ta's."
A decade ago, lightheartedness about such a serious subject would not have been possible. A breast cancer diagnosis then was experienced as a death sentence. Now, medicine has achieved a five-year survival rate of close to 90 percent for those diagnosed with stage one cancer, and the support system for those suffering from cancer is vast. An organization in Southwest Florida that has been dedicated since 1996 to helping women get healthy again is The Wellness Community Southwest Florida, now called The Cancer Support Community Florida Suncoast after merging with Gilda's Club last summer. Its mission is "to help people affected by cancer enhance their health and well-being through participation in a professional program of support, education and hope."

The organization recently moved from its longtime home on Clark Road in Sarasota to a new facility on Communications Parkway in Lakewood Ranch and hired Sarasota businessman Carl Ritter as its CEO. The five-acre campus, surrounded by more than two acres of gardens bordering a 600-acre nature preserve, is the result of a multi-faceted collaboration. Early on, the center established relationships with New College of Florida, Florida State University's College of Medicine in Sarasota and Ringling College of Art and Design. In the fall of 2006, six upper-level Ringling students collaborated on an assignment to address the project's design concept: illustrating the transforming power of connection and choice.

By Harold Bubil, Herald Tribune

If anything, people who have just been given a cancer diagnosis need a friend.

At the Cancer Support Community Florida Suncoast's green new facility in Lakewood Ranch, architect Michael Carlson has given them eight, in the form of 500-year-old pine logs serving as support posts. He says they are like "old friends."

Recovered from river bottoms, the logs are the distinctive architectural feature of the $6.1 million building, which will be dedicated Nov. 12 with a black-tie gala. The four, 30-foot-tall main posts support a 156-foot-long archway -- "the bridge of hope" -- that peaks at 35 feet above the building's courtyard, linking the structure's two sections.

"They have so much warmth and character to them," said Carlson, one of the region's leading green architects.

"When you walk in here, these are sort of like your old friends ... who have been here forever and are solid as a rock. You can touch them and feel them. They have that sense of permanence."

"Place matters" to cancer patients, says Johnette Isham, one of the leaders of the "Building Hope" construction program.

Several design charrettes and a lot of research went into the design of the 11,142-square-foot CSC. Senior Vice President Jay Lockaby said one of the research points "was to make an arrival experience, to have an obvious point of entry for someone new to the place. To have a ... warm environment for them to come into."

CSC program participant Dawn Moore, a breast cancer survivor, says there's "a very peaceful sense" in the new building.

That is fitting, as the CSC's mission is to provide psychological and social support to cancer patients and their relatives and caregivers, free of charge. CSC is part of the largest professionally trained network of cancer support facilities in the world, resulting from a merger of The Wellness Community and Gilda's Clubs, named for the late comedienne and ovarian cancer victim Gilda Radner.

The spaces include a meditation and exercise studio, a library, an education room, an art studio for children to encourage self-expression, gallery spaces, an Internet café, counseling and meeting rooms of various sizes; a large multiuse room for events, fundraisers, yoga and tai-chi, with a teaching kitchen (good nutrition is stressed); and outdoor areas for tai-chi, dining and healing gardens.

The complex has restful vistas of a nature preserve that is part of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch.

Color choices replicate colors found in nature, which is believed to be more beneficial for cancer patients.

"A lot of that thinking came from the Ringling College class," said CSC board member David Shaver. "One of their senior classes devoted an entire semester to this building. They did the original color palette."

"The group rooms are quiet, with a living-room feel, but you know you are not at home," said Lockaby. "This is where we do support groups, primarily, and individual and family therapies."

The building, intended as it is to foster better health, includes many of the standard green features that make up the United States Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) program. Carlson expects that the building's design has earned enough "LEED points" to qualify for the LEED-NC (new construction) Gold certification.

Each year, the Indian River County Chamber of Commerce takes time to appreciate local businesses that have made a positive impact on our community throughout the year, either through architectural enhancements or community action and contributions. The annual Industry Appreciation Awards program is an important component of the Chamber’s business retention activities and we encourage your participation.

On September 16th, 2010 Kashi's By the River project was awarded "The New Multi Family Community" award by the Indian River Chamber of Commerce. 

By the River, located on Florida's Treasure Coast, is an affordable senior housing development established to serve the needs of the frail elderly and disabled. Built along the Roseland Road Corridor in Sebastian, By the River offers unique life enhancing programs and in-home health services.

Housed on over five acres of pine forest in close proximity to the beautiful St. Sebastian River, the green design ensures that every resident has access to the natural environment. In keeping with respect for our surroundings, By the River is built and operated in an eco-friendly, low-impact approach.

By the River
Location: 11155 Roseland Road, Sebastian 32958
Owner: By the River, Inc.
Architect: Carlson Studio Architecture
Landscape Architect: Rock City Gardens
Engineering firms: MBV Engineering; Hees & Associates Engineering; and Stewart Engineering
Builder: Kellogg and Kimsey Construction
Durgadas Hutner and Joe Coakley accepted the award

Babaram Mitchell Fac Mgr, Michael Carlson architect, Durga Das Hutner Pres, Patti Rooney CFS and Joe Coakley Dir of Charitable Gifts of BTR

By The River

Babaram Mitchell & Patti Rooney

Lakewood Ranch Plastic Surgery has been showcased in the May 2010 issue of Maddux Business Report. The article features the Sustainable & Architectural features of the project.  Article below or click image for PDF version.

by Jennifer Lugo

A cosmetic surgery center brings calm through architecture and design:

When passersby come into your office just to get a closer look at the décor and drop some compliments, you know you've got a unique design going on.

That's the case at Lakewood Ranch Plastic Surgery & Skin Care,a first-floor office of a three-story, otherwise nondescript medical office building near Lakewood Ranch Medical Center. The facility is a new one for the husband and wife team of Drs. Joshua and Andrea Kreithen. To design their dream office, the couple worked with Sarasota's Carlson Studio Architecture.
"Their old space was a typical, cold medical space with white bare walls," says Jedd Heap of Carlson Studio and primary designer.

"The doctors came to us looking for an organic, spa-type feel." Carlson Studio pulled the look off with a smart use of natural materials like stone, cork and wood. Curvy walls, undulating ceiling light fixtures and wavy flooring transitions eliminate all sense of "boxy" office space within the five exam rooms, four offices and the tranquil lobby space.

Inspiration also came, Heap says, from the doctors' original artwork that's displayed throughout the space. The purple partial wall in the lobby,for example, was built to anchor the sofa and provide a place to hang a painting. "Most of the scenes in their artwork are organic landscapes, almost surrealist," says Heap. "We wanted to integrate those into the design."

The lobby space has two main focal points - a "water wall" and a stone wall. The water wall screens the waiting area from the hallway that leads to the exam rooms. The stone wall begins in the lobby and continues into an exam room, winding through the space and out to the exit. It's dotted with lighted apertures for product display. Besides the obvious aesthetics, the project is registered to earn a "Silver" designation for green commercial interiors from the U.S. Green Building Council. The office is located in a corner of the building, which allows for daylight and outdoor views from most of the interior spaces. White translucent glass runs along the lower portion of the exam room corridor and clear glass runs above to provide ample natural light but maintain privacy.

Other sustainable features include:

• Zoned thermostats
• Carpet tiles with recycled content
• Renewable materials like cork and bamboo
• Low-flow plumbing fixtures and sensor faucets
• Lighting sensors and high-efficiency lighting
• Custom-built, no-added formaldehyde cabinetry and desks
• Low VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) interior paint
• Reused and Green Guard-certified furniture

The result is just what the doctors ordered. "People tell us it's the prettiest office they've ever seen," says Josie Cirrintano, the doctors' office receptionist. "We get compliments all the time. Not only from patients, but from people going to see other doctors." Says Heap: "When you walk through the door, it's a mindset change."