Sustainable Design Doesn’t Have to Be Noisy
Good acoustics can be difficult to achieve in LEED® buildings. Neil Moiseev, an associate principal at Shen Milsom & Wilke, in New York City, has more than 30 years of acoustics experience, is a member of ASHRAE’s Sound and Vibration Control Technical Committee, and contributes to the ASHRAE Green Guide. He shares his tips and insights to help ensure that sustainable design achieves speech privacy and noise reduction for building occupants.

“Do No Harm” Assisted by Design
Palomar Medical Center West (PMCW) will serve Escondido, Calif., a suburb of San Diego, when it’s completed in the fall of 2011. A component of Palomar Pomerado Health (PPH), PMCW was designed to be “the best public hospital in America.” To achieve that designation, PPH hired CO Architects to masterplan its new campus.

Open Architecture Challenge Gives Students and Teachers a Say in Classroom Design
Somewhat surprisingly, Sandhya Janardhan, a design fellow with nonprofit design services firm Architecture for Humanity, says that the impoverished Indian schools that are emblematic of this year’s Open Architecture Challenge competition don’t list a lack of basic infrastructure as their most acute problem. She says their biggest issues are inflexible and outdated classrooms, a lack of teacher training and current technology, and most generally, an overall lack of design quality.