BUILDER magazine announced their 2012 inductees in the William S. Marvin Hall of Fame for Design Excellence at a special awards dinner at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C. on October 11. The Hall of Fame for Design Excellence celebrates architects and builders with a legacy of delivering remarkable residential design. This year's three inductees include:

• Donald Powers, AIA, LEED AP, Founding Principal - Union Studio, Providence, R.I
• H. Lawrence Webb, The New Home Company, Aliso Viejo, Calif.
• Michael L. Woodley, AIA, Woodley Architectural Group, Littleton, Colo. and Santa Ana, Calif.

"All three have won their share of design awards," said Denise Dersin, Editor-in-Chief of Builder Magazine, "but those accolades are just a byproduct of what really counts—

Joe Haskett has been certified by the Passive House Institute U.S. as Rhode Island's first CPHC (Certified Passive House Consultant)

So what does this mean? When a building is designed, or retrofitted, to the Passive House standard, it requires roughly 90% less energy to heat and cool when compared to a typical proposed or existing building, according to the Passive House Institute U.S. A strict set of performance-based metrics and calculations are used to evaluate the systems that function within a passive house including the building's insulation (aka the "shell"), air ventilation, heating and cooling, heat loss and solar gain from windows, to name a few examples. The goal is to drastically reduce energy consumption, improve indoor air quality and increase occupant comfort.

And Passive House design techniques aren't only for houses...these tools can be applied to a wide range of building types: mixed-use, multi-family residential, civic buildings, and whole communities. For example, the district Bahnstadt in Heidelberg Germany is being touted as Europe's largest urban development utilizing Passive House standards. Whether an individual house or a design for a new community, we're excited that Joe is bringing the next generation of sustainable building science leadership to Union Studio. Congratulations Joe!

The Providence Journal's "Reinvent RI" series focuses on the unique approaches Rhode Islanders are taking to survive -- and thrive -- in difficult economic times. Their story, Unique Living in Tiverton, features a great photo gallery and the above video profiling the members of this affordable, sustainable agricultural-arts community designed by Union Studio. Video by John Freidah, embedded with permission from The Providence Journal.

We were thrilled to be honored at the Society for Marketing Professional Service's 35th Annual National Marketing Communication Awards in San Francisco last week. Kudos to our graphic designer, Bob Troutman!

Winners were announced at the Awards Gala at SMPS' 2012 "Build Business" conference in San Francisco, CA. Over 800 marketers and business developers in the architectural, engineering, planning, interior design and construction industries throughout the US and Canada attended the conference.

Jurors commented that the rebrand from Donald Powers Architects to Union Studio was "intentional and well thought out" and that "attention was paid to every detail." They also noted that "the tying of the new brand to the perceived firm culture is palpable."

The criteria for this awards competition includes successfully achieving the marketing objective for the effort, the overallprocess, quantifiable ROI and budget and cost data.