Speaking of Design

When the Institute of Sustainable Infrastructure formed in 2012, the infrastructure industry suddenly had a universal report card for sustainability known as Envision®. On this episode, you'll meet some of the industry's early adopters and experts on the infrastructure sustainability rating system. They’ll help you understand more about how the framework can help your clients, why a sustainability rating is about more than a pat on the back, and what the process entails so you can help your clients get their projects verified.

On the next episode of Speaking of Design, we’ll introduce you to some of the industry experts on Envision – the rating system for designing sustainable infrastructure.

Providing healthcare for inmates poses a complex challenge with agendas often viewed as contradictory. How do you design a space for healing and treatment in a facility intended for punishment? Is there an optimal location for providing such care? Is it more cost-effective to provide medical services in-house, or transport inmates to established healthcare facilities? In this episode, we’ll explore the current state of healthcare in corrections through HDR Fellow Dave Redemske’s research Providing Healthcare in the Prison Environment. Dave and his colleagues discuss what’s being done to improve the level of care and how inmate healthcare, at its root, is a public health issue.

On the next episode of Speaking of Design, we’ll meet an architect who spent a year researching how we provide healthcare inside a prison environment. While much of the data paints a bleak picture, we’ll look at the role design is playing to improve outcomes in our communities.

Jon Holler, a senior facility design manager with HDR | MDG, calls his job fun. That mindset makes Jon an ideal person to lead a public meeting or design charrette, where stakeholders bring big ideas, diverse opinions and tough questions to map out a common solution for a project. In this bonus episode, Jon discusses that process for the LA Metro Division 14 Rail Operations and Maintenance Facility, featured on Episode 7 of Speaking of Design.

Mark Ellis describes himself as a "facility design zealot," and his passion shows when he talks about any of the more than 200 projects he’s contributed to at HDR | MDG. As the technical team leader for industrial workflow and equipment on the LA Metro Division 14 Rail Operations and Maintenance Facility, Mark and his team had the daily mantra, "Okay, does this really work?" In this bonus episode, Mark discusses more of the technical details of the Division 14 facility, featured on Episode 7 of Speaking of Design.

Darren Pynn finds a common thread between his career and his greatest passion outside the office. The problem-solving process his team uses to design vehicle operations and maintenance facilities — like the L.A. Metro Division 14 Rail Operations and Maintenance Facility featured on Episode 7 of Speaking of Design — complements his songwriting process as a musician. In this bonus episode, Darren talks about those similarities and the process of realizing a great design in his role as a senior facility design manager for HDR | MDG.

The Expo Line connects downtown Los Angeles to the beaches of Santa Monica. But the much-anticipated light rail expansion brought a need for a facility to clean, maintain and repair the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s 45 light-rail vehicles. However, residents of Santa Monica weren’t too sure about building a rail maintenance facility right in the heart of the Pico neighborhood — inspiring designers to create much more than a cookie-cutter solution.

New rail transit services come with a need for building new infrastructure. However, residents of Santa Monica weren’t too sure about building a rail maintenance facility right in the heart of the Pico neighborhood — inspiring designers to create much more than a cookie-cutter solution. Hear the full story on the next episode of Speaking of Design.

Featured on Episode 6 of Speaking of Design, the Basin Creek Water Treatment Plant is the first gravity-powered facility in the United States to use a ceramic membrane filtration system. Nathan Kutil led the team of engineers behind the plant's many technological innovations. In this bonus podcast, we hear more from Nathan about why the community of Butte-Silver Bow needed a new plant, what it means to treat drinking water "on-demand," and the benefits of using ceramic filters.