Green Building

Green building-  or just smart building?

For Friedman Brueggemeyer, green building is not a magic pill that solves the dilemma of waste and pollution in the construction process. We incorporate thoughtful design and appropriate choices in the creation of a beautiful finished product. Our years of experience in both design and construction give us the expertise to design durable, high quality and easily maintained projects, the hallmark of smart building.

The construction process requires scraping away parts of, or entire buildings, and replacing them with new parts. The demolition process creates debris which pollutes the planet, and the newly installed building products create an additional pollution load from the factories that create them and the transportation that delivers them. The decision to remodel a space comes with the responsibility to do so in the most accountable manner possible. During the design phase we ask ourselves, “What parts can be saved?” We consider the project from several different aspects to ensure that we are considering all possible solutions. We recently completed a commercial project on Solano Avenue that was originally slated to be completely demolished. After careful consideration, we decided to save the shell of the building, thereby minimizing waste and saving the client time and money.

We collaborate with other design professionals who focus on green building and bring a high level of materials knowledge with them to the project. They are specialists who lead us through the process of designing and building green in the most efficient possible way. We recently completed a project that is LEED pending. At  L.J.Kruse’s http://www.bdcnetwork.com/article/lj-kruse-opens-new-leed-building-berkeley-calif-applies-leed-platinum West Berkeley office and warehouse facility, we collaborated with Shannon DelVecchio to build out a beautiful office space at an affordable cost that will likely receive the highest (Platinum) LEED rating.