Building Knowledge

THE HYBRID WORKPLACE: Creating an environment to help your team grow.

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 02:48:06 GMT

Benefits of a Hybrid Workspace

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the way we work and has accelerated the trend of remote work. Companies have had to adapt to new ways of working and have been forced to explore the benefits and challenges of remote work. As a result, a new hybrid workplace has emerged, where employees have the option to work from home or in the office.

Advantages of the Hybrid Workplace:

Increased flexibility: Employees have the flexibility to choose where they work, depending on their personal needs and preferences.
Improved work-life balance: Employees can now balance work and home life more effectively, as they can work from home when necessary.
Reduced commuting time and cost: Employees can save time and money on commuting, as they can work from home.
Access to a wider pool of talent: Companies can now hire the best talent from anywhere in the world, as location is no longer a barrier.

As a Case Study, lets see how LinkedIn Redesigned their headquarters for Hybrid Work.

LinkedIn has redesigned its headquarters to accommodate its hybrid workforce and to create a flexible and productive workspace. Here are some of the changes LinkedIn has made to its HQ to support the hybrid workplace:

Flexible workspaces: LinkedIn has created a mix of flexible workspaces, including private offices, collaboration spaces, and open workspaces to accommodate the different work styles and preferences of its employees.
Technology-enabled meeting rooms: LinkedIn has installed new technology in its meeting rooms to support remote and in-person collaboration, such as large displays, cameras, and high-quality audio systems.
Hybrid-friendly furniture: LinkedIn has chosen furniture that is designed for both remote and in-person work, with ergonomic features, adjustable heights, and wireless charging.
Improved air filtration: LinkedIn has made improvements to its air filtration system to increase indoor air quality and help reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Health and wellness amenities: LinkedIn has added health and wellness amenities, such as fitness rooms, quiet spaces, and outdoor areas, to support employee well-being.

Restaurant Design Trends

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 19:15:19 GMT

These days the design and experience is as important as the food

Restaurant design is an ever-evolving industry that is constantly being influenced by new trends and styles. Whether you're planning to open a new restaurant or looking to renovate an existing one, it's essential to stay up-to-date on the latest design trends.

One of the biggest trends in restaurant design is the use of natural materials. This includes wood, stone, and other natural elements that add warmth and character to a space. The use of natural materials creates a sense of comfort and relaxation, and it also helps to create a connection between the restaurant and the local environment. Additionally, it has a positive impact on the environment.

Another popular trend is the use of open kitchens. This allows customers to see the kitchen and the chefs at work, which creates a sense of transparency and trust. This also brings an interactive experience for the customers. Open kitchens also contribute to a more relaxed and informal atmosphere.

Social Media is changing the way we design restaurants

jprocafort@gmail.com (Jean Paul Rocafort) — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 03:01:42 GMT

For years now, Instagram has set the bar for trends in food and entertainment industry. From colorful Cereal Bars like PALS Company to Birthday Pancakes from Tía Cocina , their food, their plating and overall space are often designed with Instagram in mind, branding experts and entrepreneurs are responsible for popular treats like the Tía Cocina and Sugar Factory milkshake often see lines around the block after images of their products go viral. Firms like BCS Architect s and Builders specialize in just that, turning restaurants into INSTAGRAM BAIT by designing not only the space and how you feel inside of it but also the photo-op moments to make your brand go viral.

Instagram’s parent-company Facebook announced it made $9.1 billion in earnings this quarter on advertising, retaining its longstanding rule over digital advertising alongside with Google’s Alphabet ($26 billion). With Instagram absorbing competitor Snapchat’s story features and increasing the number of sponsored posts it shows this year, it’s not a stretch to say that the social media giant sits at the center of food and beverage trends. But what happens to interior spaces when restaurants set out to be “Instagrammable”?

When the older generation of restaurants were designed as visual experiences, they generally came across as kitsch: think of the mid-century hot dog stands and donut shops shaped as the food they served. Those made for good photographs, too, but their primary aim was to entice drivers to pull off the highway and eat there.
– Casey Newton, The Verge

Design is approached differently, now with photography in mind. High ceilings, patterns, lighting, tiles, wallpapers, you name it… It all has to be pictured perfect. Now entrepreneurs are taking advantage of this opportunity and taking a step further by hiring architects and builders that understand their brand purpose and vision. More and more we see our clients request neon lights, painting elaborate murals, and embedding floor tiles with branded greetings — all in the hopes that their guests will post them.

While the Sin City Embellishment that Venturi and Scott Brown wrote about in Learning from Las Vegas has vanished, the aesthetic is back with a millennial agenda. Details, from furniture to fixtures, fuel the aspirational lifestyle content that Instagram runs on and Entrepreneurs need to capitalize on that.

A good example of this is Media Noche, a fast-casual Cuban restaurant in San Francisco, the hook was the floor. Searching through old Cuban designs, Collins found beautiful old tiles with a dramatic pink-and-green floral designs. She had similar tiles custom-made for the restaurant, and they provided a visual anchor for everything that followed. Other Instagram triggers include banana-print wallpaper in the bathrooms, an old-fashioned white board menu with removable black plastic letters, and an exterior mural of pink flamingos, their heads bowed into the shape of a heart.

…which happens to look a lot like one of our restaurant projects, Tía Cocina .

Markoe, the Owner says that the restaurant’s early social media success has attracted tourists from as far away as China and Japan. “They saw the photos and they say, ‘I want that for my Instagram,’” she says. The average guest takes pictures for 10 minutes before ordering anything, Markoe says. Many bring tripods to better frame their shots. “It’s just really insane,” she says.

For many restaurants, Instagram-centered design means moving to physical spaces that are flooded with natural light, so as to permit more beautiful photographs. Take a look at one of our most recent restaurant projects Restaurante Vianda in Santurce, Puerto Rico. The lighting accentuates the details of the bar area while transforming the space with different shading through out the day.

For entrepreneurs seeking social media glory, no detail is too small to consider but there is also a big risk with these spaces, their Instagram-Driven designs can begin to look stale or inauthentic. Customers will know when your story is fake, so don’t push it. Hire and Architect that will help you make the space balanced, beautifully designed and functional.

Ultimately, restaurants are in the business of making memories and photos are the place where we store them. On Instagram, “we basically trade memories of commodities”, showing off the places we’ve been. Restaurants supply the raw material, and we come in to collect it with a smartphone lens.

So there it is, to all new restaurant entrepreneurs we hope you instagram your way to success while cooking great food and making people happy!… With the help of BCS of course. Cheers!

Design Build Infographic

jprocafort@gmail.com (Jean Paul Rocafort) — Sun, 24 Jun 2018 14:40:15 GMT

AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS

Architect's guide to integrating energy modeling in the design process

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 01:11:31 GMT

“The energy model and focus on energy performance is not meant to supplant the importance of design. Rather, a building energy model is a tool that can be utilized throughout the design process to test various design options and optimize the performance of all building typologies.”

With today’s increasing focus on sustainability, we must become fluent in the vocabulary and technologies that predict, test, and quantify energy performance in buildings. Familiarity with building energy modeling is essential to respond to the requirements of new green building codes and savvy clients, and this guide provides a start.

One key message of the guide is that architects needn’t become technical experts on energy modeling or the myriad software tools currently available. However, a working understanding of the energy modeling process is needed to empower us to fold this necessary and valuable capability into our fundamentally integrative work.

The information contained in the guide is designed to entice us to engage engineers, energy modelers, and project team members on energy and performance issues early and throughout the design and operation processes.

This document contains a summary of the most prevalent tools for performance and energy modeling currently used in the industry, along with key terminology, processes, and practices that have been used shown to help architects. Content is divided into seven sections and covers:

Potential for new and ongoing services
Basic methodology
Measurement, monitoring, reporting, and calibration
The compliance process
Energy models and daylighting simulation tools
Interoperability and more.

This post was published by AIA Energy Modeling Group. For more information visit the AIA at https://www.aia.org/resources/8056-architects-guide-to-integrating-energy-modeli:41

Architect leads team to power Puerto Rico, post- Hurricane María

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 01:07:03 GMT

This unprecedented installation of solar-powered generators and batteries aims to kick-start the island's recovery and resilience efforts

Caño Martin Peña, Loiza, Humacao: these are the proving grounds for a recent effort to bring solar power to Puerto Rico, which could revolutionize post-disaster resilience in the long term. It will certainly help the hurricane-ravaged island in the near term, thanks to Resilient Power Puerto Rico and cofounder Jonathan Marvel, FAIA. Marvel, inspired by his architect father Thomas while growing up in San Juan, founded Marvel Architects more than 30 years ago. His firm’s goal, to expand the “economic and creative opportunities for a range of clients” through design, is certainly aligned with the task ahead: to provide Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities with avenues to electricity beyond reliance on fossil fuels.

How did you get involved in this solar project?

Jonathan Marvel: I was in New York when Hurricane Maria hit; afterwards, I started coordinating with my cohorts to establish a sort of utopian, best-case scenario. We came up with a plan to fundraise for bringing solar-powered generators to the island. When I finally made it to San Juan, I was able to procure resources and put together teams for the engineering and installation of these systems.

Like everyone else, we read about the Tesla relationship to Puerto Rico and reached out through our network of engineers. Two weeks later, we were certified by them to buy and install their battery system in Puerto Rico.

This didn’t start with Tesla; it started with a dream. And it couldn’t have happened without Cristina Roig, a lawyer based in New York and Puerto Rico, and Walter Meyer, a landscape architect in Brooklyn; I also want to acknowledge our electric engineer, Angel Zayas, and our electrical installers Pro Service and New Energy. They all donated lots of time, money, and hardware.

Why was Puerto Rico the perfect place for this type of endeavor?

Marvel: The electrical authority in Puerto Rico has historically been very careful in how renewable energy gets integrated into their power grid; they remain entirely fossil fuel-based. We were aware that installing a battery backup panel system was very difficult to get permitted; the electrical authority allows you to stream your panelized energy back into their grid, but they have not allowed homeowners or any commercial operation to install a battery into that system. There is a loophole, however, that we were aware of: if you’re off the grid, you can do whatever you want. As the entire island is basically now off the grid, we saw this as a window to create as many sites, as quickly as possible, that use renewable energies with a focus on solar.

Architects and engineers have calculated that 10 to 15 percent of the island is covered in flat roof, concrete buildings. Because Puerto Rico is 18 degrees above the equator, a flat roof there is at the perfect angle for efficient solar panel receptivity. These flat roofs became our target for saying, “Let’s put Puerto Rico on a renewable trajectory so when the grid comes back up, the electrical authority has to negotiate with the thousands of people who have installed batteries onto the rooftop units.”

"Architects understand that when we talk to communities or clients, the biggest obstacle to any kind of project is a fear of change." - Jonathan Marvel, FAIA

There’s nothing better than a crisis to create new opportunities, which here means putting in a new network of solar generators. We’re training young people to become the future tech crews on the island, generating a new kind of entrepreneurial economy by having thriving solar panel and solar converter systems. Every township can now have its own crews. That means more cash flow, more entrepreneurial energy on the island. There are all these secondary and tertiary benefits from completing this system that didn’t exist before.

Beyond the island’s need for power and an opportunity to innovate, what do you think led to Puerto Rico ultimately supporting this plan?

Marvel: In a situation like this, you realize how much everyone is used to the luxuries of air conditioning, refrigeration, communication, and lights. When all of that is cut off, people start rethinking how things operate. People are ready for something new and different.

When the power went out in Puerto Rico, people went to the gas and diesel generators to provide the electricity that was lost. Right now, Puerto Rico is an island of generators. These low-cost generators are running all day, burning gas and diesel without any filtration systems, into a fragile ecosystem. They’re also noisy all day, with neighbors being kept awake because people need power to refrigerate medicine or stay cool.

I’m not saying the generators were wrong, but they’re a Band-Aid. It was a wake-up call to everyone, to have them say, “Maybe we wouldn’t have to wait in line for gas and diesel, and pay $150 a day for running these generators, if we had another system in place.”

One of the purposes of our lightning-strike installation is to show people that this is a very maintenance-free system; there are no moving parts. The beauty of the solar panels and the batteries is that there is very little you need to do, once it is up and running, to maintain the system. The batteries have a 10-year lifespan, as do the panels. Everything we’re doing is permittable, meets all the electrical codes, and has been installed by certified electricians, so when the power does come up we’ll able to get the paperwork done to make these systems legitimate and legal.

As much as anything, you sound like an architect who saw a chance to enlighten an island of open-minded clients.

Marvel: It certainly takes the fear factor out the equation. Architects understand that when we talk to communities or clients, the biggest obstacle to any kind of project is a fear of change. It’s not that we’re proposing something wrong or bad; it’s just human nature to resist change.

One of our big goals has been to remove any fear of the solar panel generator. Now we have sites that can be opened up to the community; they become showcases and prototypes where people can walk around and see how simple and efficient the installation process can be. There’s so much skilled labor in Puerto Rico, so many people that are ready to work but lack a job. You’ve got access to all the technical crews needed to get 10 of these installed a week, without any real difficulty in finding the people to do the work. Our job as architects is to find the sites, talk to the communities, and train the locals in each area to do more of the same as the opportunities arise.

To contribute to providing the most underserved areas of Puerto Rico with solar power, visit Resilient Power Puerto Rico and donate today.

Steve Cimino is a Los Angeles-based writer who covers architecture, sustainability, and health.

Sartorius Stedim - LEED Platinum

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 00:58:09 GMT

Highest rating for ecological and sustainable building design

• The highest possible rating for ecological and sustainable building design; the world’s first Platinum-certified manufacturing facility to supply the biopharmaceutical industry

Sartorius Stedim Biotech, a leading international equipment provider for the pharmaceutical industry, has now been awarded the highest certification for ecological and sustainable building by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for its new facility in Yauco, Puerto Rico. According to the LEED certification system, an internationally recognized green building program, the new building was certified as “LEED Platinum.” As a result, Sartorius is the only company worldwide to have a LEED Platinum-certified manufacturing facility for the biopharmaceutical industry . LEED provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

Sartorius teamed up with Hector M. Varela, Inc and Vinvent Pieri to invest 15 million dollars in the new production building. The building was officially opened last June 2012, after taking around 12 months to build. Covering an area of 5,000m2, the new eco-friendly building complex provides space for two new cleanrooms for filter and bag manufacture, labs and offices.

Ecological aspects played a role in the project from the outset, with special attention being paid to conserving water and energy resources. The new building complex in Yauco saves approximately 85% of water consumed in comparison with conventional facilities. It uses harvested rainwater and air-handling unit condensate for cooling cleanrooms and supplying grey water to facilities, as well as for irrigation purposes. The building’s climate control technology, special building materials, and perforated metal fins and diaphanous screen walls that reduce sunlight contribute to energy savings. In addition, Sartorius Stedim Biotech covers approximately 10% of its energy needs for the new building with a photovoltaic system, which is installed on the factory roof.

‘We are very proud to have received this prestigious rating for our new facility in Yauco from the USGBC organisation. It acknowledges the green building measures that Sartorius has taken to ensure protection of the environment. Our innovative building sets new standards and proves that careful planning enables ecological and economical concerns to be reconciled,’ said Volker Niebel, member of the Executive Committee of Sartorius Stedim Biotech.

Puerto Rico Tax Incentives Act 20/22

jprocafort@gmail.com (Jean Paul Rocafort) — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 00:52:43 GMT

The advantages of doing business in Puerto Rico

With a new Export Services Act and a new Individuals Investors Tax Act, the Island now has a lot more to offer than ever before.

Since January of 2012, the Government of Puerto Rico signed into law both Act 20 and Act 22, providing aggressive incentives to urge investors to move to the Island to do business, while becoming a center for exportation of international services throughout the world.

According to the Department of Economic Development and Commerce of the Government of Puerto Rico, and due to the Island’s favorable tax and cost structure, as well as its modern and world class infrastructure and attributes, the newly Act 20 to Promote the Exportation of Services of 2012 was designed to provide the appropriate environment and opportunities to make Puerto Rico a center for international services. In order to do so, the Act is focused on encouraging local service providers to expand their businesses by offering their services to clients located outside the Island. Also, it aims to convince foreign services providers to move their businesses to Puerto Rico.

Act 20

The Export Services Act of 2012 or Act 20 was established and intended to promote the exportation of services, by providing the appropriate environment and opportunities to make Puerto Rico a center for international services. In order to do so, the Act is focused on encouraging local service providers to expand their businesses by offering their services to clients located outside the Island. Also, it aims to convince foreign services providers to move their businesses to Puerto Rico.

Act 20 offers a four (4)% corporate tax rate for Puerto Rican businesses providing services for exportation, 100% tax-exempt dividends from earnings and profits derived from the export services income of eligible businesses, and a 60% exemption on municipal taxes.

Since there are special rules provided for the year of the move from the United States to Puerto Rico, investors are encouraged to follow them closely in order to take full advantage of the new laws and its benefits.

Act 20 offers:

4% corporate tax rate
100% tax-exempt dividends
60% exemption on municipal taxes
20-year decree guaranteeing these rates
No federal taxes on Puerto Rico source income

Act 22

The Individuals Investors Tax Act of 2012 or Act 22 was established to promote the relocation of individual investors to Puerto Rico, in order to attract new residents to the Island by providing a total exemption from Puerto Rico income taxes on all passive income realized or accrued after such individuals become bona fide residents. On the long run, the goal is to attract new local investments in real estate, services, and capital injections to the Puerto Rico banking sector, in order to accelerate the Island’s economy.

The incentives under Act 22 of 2012, which will expire on December 31, 2035, include 100% tax-exemption on dividends and interests and a 100% tax exemption on short-and long-term capital gains, after becoming residents. To become a new bona fide resident of Puerto Rico, an individual must have physical presence in the Island for at least 183 days of the year and must not have been a resident in Puerto Rico for the 15 years prior to the Act’s effective date.

Tax experts and financial counselors working with international firm BDO, both in Puerto Rico and through offices around the world, have powerful knowledge and current updates to assist new investors through the process of establishing both their residences and businesses in Puerto Rico.

Act 22 offers:

0% tax on dividend and interest income for new Puerto Rico residents
0% tax on short-and-long term capital gains for new Puerto Rico residents
0% federal taxes on Puerto Rico source income
Incredible tax savings on your investment portfolio returns
82°F weather all-year round and 300 miles of paradise beaches

Act 273

Another important legislation that was conceived as a complimentary one to Acts 20 and 22 was The International Financial Center Regulatory Act (Act 273 of 2012).

This law was enacted with the objective of making Puerto Rico an international banking and financial center by providing tax incentives for new banking and financial activity in Puerto Rico that is done for clients outside of Puerto Rico.

The tax incentive offer is mainly a four (4)% income tax rate for new banking and financial businesses established in Puerto Rico under qualifying circumstances.