Let There Be Light.....

Any of you who have toured our building know that we put a lot of thought and effort into the lighting of the space.  Having comfortable, appropriate levels of light is critically important to making our spaces usable.   And lighting represents a significant opportunity to save energy over the long term.

To maximize the efficiency of our lighting, the design team worked closely with the folks who would install the lighting, Hirneisen Electric and with the main supplier of our electrical components, Fromm Electric.  This is another example of how local companies were closely involved in the project.

This is the story of the choices we made that came together with a great result.

New Report: Green Buildings and Improved Productivity

Once when I was giving a presentation about our (then proposed) building, I noted that there was a growing body of research that employee productivity and student performance improve in green buildings.  There was this grumpy guy in the group who said "I'm a CFO and I don't buy any of that improved productivity stuff."   Never really understood why being a CFO would cause you to ignore new information, but it made sense to him.

Last week, CB Richard Ellis a real estate firm and the Burnham Moore Center at the University of California at San Diego released research demonstrating again that employee productivity is higher in green buildings.

The study also noted the significantly higher rents that green buildings can attract.   The evidence continues to mount that green buildings may be the only economically rational and responsible approach to new construction.

For a copy of the study, click here.   Really sorry to disappoint my "CFO friend."  

Fantastic Building Photos

Click here to see some fantastic photos of the architectural details of our building. 

We walk all over it, but we love it.......

It's probably no surprise that we were careful about the carpet that we selected for the building. A big expense and a big choice in terms of its environmental impact, the carpet had to be functional, attractive and environmentally friendly. The carpet is made by InterfaceFlor and is a line called Entropy.

It's worth a trip to their website on environmental sustainability to learn about this company's extraordinary, industry leading practices. Among other things, the company is committed to carbon-neutrality--that's an admirable challenge.

The Entropy carpet line is between 66% and 74% recycled materials--33% of which is post-consumer and 33%-41% of the carpet is post-industrial.

Because the carpet goes down in squares rather than rolls, it will cost us less in maintenance. When a square becomes worn or damaged, we just replace that square, not the whole roll. And the squares go into the recycling stream, not the waste stream!

So when you visit the building, be sure to look down. We're proud of our carpet and the role it played in making the building more environmentally friendly.

Video

We've posted a video about the building on our YouTube channel. To view it, click here.

Where to Park

We love having visitors to our building and boy are we getting a lot of them! Not a day goes by without a couple of tours going through the building. The Lawrence R. Pugh/VF Corporation Community Conference Center is busy with meetings.

We'd hate to have someone's visit marred by a parking ticket. So here's some advice on where to park when you come visit. First, there's on-street parking along both Court Streets and Third Street. Plan to "feed the meter" on those spots, but they're great for a quick visit.

When we built the building, it was designed specifically to use the Chiarelli Parking Garage (pictured) which is owned by the Reading Parking Authority. We even pointed our entrance to the corner to make the walk across the street as short as possible. The rates are very reasonable.

For visitors with a handicap placard on their car, there's a spot behind our building, with an entrance on third street or the Chiarelli garage has spots. If you park behind the building, it maybe easiest to enter the building from back-side garden level entrance. Just push the buzzer next to the door.

Unfortunately, we don't have space in our small back lot for other visitors and non-employee cars parked there may be ticketed by the parking authority. The large lot next door is owned by the church and is also not available for visitors.

Our own sparkling wine!

At our ribbon cutting, Ed Anewalt, the owner of Anewalt's Landscape Contractor presented all the members of The Community Foundation staff with a commemorative bottle of Brut sparkling wine from Clover Hill Winery. Ed's family owns the winery and designed a special label to commemorate the opening of the building.

I still see a lot of bottles around the office, but they're all empty!