Sustainable Design Blog

This week reporter Scott Denis from ABC 7 featured the LEED Certified Lakewood Ranch Plastic Surgery Office on his "Green Living" segment.

"A Suncoast doctor wanted his office to be not just a place that promotes health, but a healthy environment as well.  Plastic Surgeon Dr. Joshua Kreithen has accomplished both with one of the first LEED-certified doctor's offices in the state.

You feel relaxed from the moment you walk in. The soothing sounds, attractive building materials and the extensive use of natural lighting..." Click here for the full article

From ShawContract.com:

Research shows that healthcare environmental design plays a significant role in wellness and healing. And while patient and staff well-being is a top priority, Shaw Contract Group's innovative flooring options also address your practical concerns: function, accessibility and safety. Find out how our flooring can positively impact your healthcare environment and the lives of those within it.

The Design is Healing brochure is a comprehensive look at our specific approach to carpet design for healthcare environments. Design is Healing details the critical aspects that floors must account for when installed in acute care and long-term care facilities. These areas include:

• Evidence-Based Design
• Comfort
• Performance
• Indoor Environments
• Sustainability

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.

By JAMES A. JONES JR. - jajones1@bradenton.com  

LAKEWOOD RANCH

One of the more unusual buildings to be constructed here is the Cancer Support Community of Southwest Florida. A 156-foot long, 35-foot high arch, called the “Bridge of Hope,” ties two 6,000-square-foot buildings together.  Eight massive columns supporting the arch are preserved tree logs recovered from the Suwanee River.

The logs were harvested from old-growth forest and floated down river more than 100 years ago. Some of the logs sank to the bottom of the river and remained there a century until discovered and excavated. The long time under water helped preserve the wood.

Cancer Support Community, formerly The Wellness Community, is scheduled for an October opening.

The Wellness Community recently merged with Gilda’s Clubs Worldwide to become Cancer Support Community.

Architect Michael Carlson designed the facility with input from Ringling College students and faculty, cancer survivors and medical experts.

The building sits on a five-acre parcel in the Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park, backs up to Long Swamp and is surrounded by a 600-acre nature preserve.

“We feel that it fits in beautifully in that all-natural area,” Carlson said.

Designed to provide psychological and social support to cancer patients and their families, the facility and its staff offer a free, professional program of education and hope.

The Bridge of Hope architectural feature was envisioned for the facility from the beginning of planning, Carlson said.

The arch is not only a traditional design element that signifies strength and permanence, according to a fact sheet supplied by Carlson, it also gives visitors an empowering sense of comfort from the structural pillars.

The arch extends from the north side, or entrance of the facility, and beyond the south building.

When visitors enter the building, they see the underside of the arch high above them. The arch clears a connecting courtyard, and then passes over the south building with its children’s area and community room. The room can be used for events, exercise classes and more.

The arch intentionally dominates the design of Cancer Support Community. The rest of the building was scaled down to be simple, welcoming and non-institutional.

The facility was also designed to take advantage of its surroundings. It is aligned on a precise east-west axis so that the sides of the building face north and south. The orientation takes best advantage of natural light, while minimizing heat gain.

In addition, the building extends into outdoor landscaped spaces that provide Tai Chi gardens, a dining terrace, healing gardens and the central courtyard.

Willis A. Smith Construction is also the contractor for the project, and is building it to qualify for the Gold level of LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, Carlson said.

Programming design began in 2006, with construction commencing in July 2009.

“The challenge of the building was to take all these diverse groups and put the ideas together in a cohesive whole,” Carlson said. “Everybody that has seen it has been inspired. We’ve received great feedback.”

Executive Director Jay Lockaby released a statement as to why a healing environmental matters to those living with cancer:

“Thanks to the generous donors to our Building Hope campaign, we will be able to provide free support for up to 6,000 cancer patients and their families annually in the finest healing environment anywhere — a facility that improves quality of life and may enhance recovery as well.

“Our referring physicians agree that effective treatment includes therapy and support outside the hospital and doctor’s office,” said Lockaby. “As the little non-profit that could, our goal is to create an atmosphere of physical and emotional comfort and to share our model with people around the world.”

For more information on Cancer Support Community, visit www.wellness-swfl.org.

James A. Jones Jr., East Manatee Editor, can be contacted at 745-7021.

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Cambria Natural Quartz Surfaces has chosen the countertop design at Lakewood Ranch Plastic Surgery for a national case study. They choose the project due to its unique use of the material which pushed the limits of the product. Features include a 4" edge and curved form. Parried with Bamboo laminated cabinetry and glass accent tile, the Check-in and Check-out desks create an incredible design feature for this project.

Lakewood Ranch Plastic Surgery is currently seeking LEED-CI certification. When pursuing LEED certification it is important that all installed materials help the design become more sustainable. Cambria Natural Quartz Surfaces are durable, nonporous composite products composed of 93% quartz. Cambria surfaces do not off-gas and contain zero formaldehyde or volatile organic compounds (VOC's). Cambria surfaces are GREENGUARD for Children and Schools certified and GREENGUARD Indoor Air Quality Certified.