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.

The Cancer Support Community's "Building Hope" will officially open next Tuesday October 19th, 2010. The $6.1-million facility is located on five acres in north Sarasota County just east of I-75 in Lakewood Ranch. It will be run by the Cancer Support Community Florida Suncoast, the new name for the Wellness Community of Southwest Florida. The new center will include an 11,142-square-foot building and 2.2 acres of landscaped gardens. The facility is being designed to support people whose immune systems have been compromised.

The Building Hope project is seeking Gold Certification under the USGBC's Leadership in Energy and Enviromental Design (LEED) green building rating program.

August 16, 2010 (Sarasota, FL)  Learning Gate Community School, a charter school in Hillsborough County with a curriculum that emphasizes nature, agriculture and environmental responsibility, became the first public school in the United States to earn LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.  The project, 3 new buildings, consisting of 10 classrooms and an 8,000-square-foot addition to the middle school campus, was designed by Carlson Studio Architecture.

“Green schools – whether newly constructed or retrofitted existing buildings - make a tremendous impact on student health, test scores, teacher retention, school operational costs and the environment,” said Carlson Studio Architecture President Michael Carlson.

The LEED Platinum Certification was awarded on a number of sustainable design strategies and construction features that include:

The new buildings are constructed using prefabricated 6" wood stud modules for quick site assembly. Once placed on their elevated foundations the buildings were insulated with R-30 Soy-Based spray insulation, walls are finished with 95% recycled content gypsum board, and the floors with "Cradle to Cradle" carpet tiles made from soda bottles.

Large insulated north facing windows allow for natural light, while dimmable T-8 fluorescent fixtures will automatically adjust to add additional lighting. The classrooms also utilize a High Efficiency A/C system, which dehumidifies both the fresh air and return air, allowing for smaller sized cooling units.

Rainwater is harvested for the flushing of 1.2 gallon per flush toilets, which will eventually be integrated into an on site "living machine" waste treatment center.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the USGBC’s standardized 3rd party verification system, administered by the Green Building Certification Institute, for certifying the world’s greenest, energy efficient and high performance buildings.  

For more information about the project, visit www.CarlsonStudio.org/projects/---public/learning-gate/ or www.LearningGate.org/

Lakewood Ranch Plastic Surgery Office is the second project to recieve the "COOL" rating form the Tampa Bay Business Journal, CSA'a own office received the honor in 2009.

LWR Plastic Surgery is currently seeking LEED-CI certification for the US Green Building Council.

Tampa Bay Business Journal - by Margaret Cashill Staff writer

Tampa Bay's coolest office spaces designed to inspire employees - Tampa Bay Business Journal
Coolest Office Spaces, a TBBJ feature now in its third year, is dedicated to recognizing the "cool" in Tampa Bay area offices.

This year's spaces prove that cool is an ever-evolving concept, one that in 2010 departed from conventional design concepts and restored the notion of fun in the workplace.

Companies are choosing bright colors to liven up the mood and original artwork, in some cases created by the owners.

Owners favor collaborative, open environments that foster communication and camaraderie.

Read more: PDF of Article

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."

Michael Carlson, AIA, LEED AP & Jedd W. Heap, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP will present several of the firms LEED certified projects and discuss the philosophies behind each project's design and environmental integration.

Carlson Studio Architecture is a Sarasota-based, full service architecture firm, committed to design excellence, comprehensive project delivery and personal attention to each project. The firm is a regional leader in sustainable design and LEED projects.

Sustainability is a key principal we apply to all of our projects. The integrated design approach that we utilize in all our work allows us to provide high quality, high performance buildings for our clients. We look at our buildings as part of the greater "whole system." Everything is part of one Whole System.