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www.infocus-zine.com and By Debbie Kwiatoski

Building Sustainably

By Debbie Kwiatoski

“If you’re going to build, rehabilitate, or remodel a building, then you need an architect,” architect Richard Alfandre explains. “Why? Because there are multiple life safety issues inherent in every project.”

Beyond the basic engineering, codes and regulations (many requiring experts of their own), Alfandre points to a wide range of indoor environmental issues that can – and should – be addressed with a good architect.

“I’m talking about things like mold, water control, chemical control, ventilation and containment issues,” he added. “How you design something – and the product that use in its construction have a long term impact on our indoor environment. There are complicated and dynamic sets of issues that need to be considered”

And then there’s the issue of beauty.

“A beautifully built landscape contributes to a healthy world,” said Alfandre. “There are basic underlying fundamental principles to consider…structure, from, light…the relationship of buildings to each other and to the natural environment…the placement of windows….No one can actually define what is beautiful, but we know it when we see it.”

His projects, like the Minnewaska Lodge in Gardiner or the Woodlands Community Temple in Sullivan County, illustrate his devotion to creating structures that work with the natural landscape, rather than against it. Structures like this, he stresses, are more living organisms and less commodities.

Alfandre began his practice in 1991, after being licensed by New York State. Over the years, he has built his own business in New Paltz, as well as collaborating with other firms in the area from time to time. An active member of the American Association of Architects, Alfandre has worked hard to bring his ethos of landscape friendly, sustainable design and engineering to ever more receptive audiences. He is also a member of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association and the United States Green Building Council.

“You can’t disentangle concepts and sustainability and green design from environmental health issues,” he stresses. “We have to find the ways to re-integrate human systems with natural systems. This has to be conscious move and it has several pieces to it.”

For Alfandre, these pieces include things like the conservation and preservation of both our natural resources and our current built landscape. In other words, where we can effectively restore and remodel older structures to create new uses for them or to make them more sustainable, we should.

“That’s not to say, we can actually accomplish this goal immediately,” said Alfandre. “The reality is that projects need to also be cost effective – and we all have to make a living. But we should be doing so by keeping the Big Picture in mind; asking ourselves each time, what can be done incrementally to make this project more sustainable.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Use another Alfandre picture from CD….credit to Michael Gold, The Corporate Image)

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