LEEDing the way in green practices
Sustainable design
By Carol Park
The road to success starts with a plan, and California-based WWCOT Architects began that journey when it first started as a small architecture firm in 1964.
Since its humble beginnings, WWCOT Architects has brought innovation, versatility and quality to the design industry.
Today, the 160-person firm has offices in Riverside, Palm Springs, Santa Monica, Modesto and Shanghai, China.
The Beacon Building at Helms in Culver City, CA, was renovated with the environment in mind and has several sustainable features, including a photovoltaic system that supplies energy from sunlight while shading cars in the parking lot.
Leaders in the sustainable design movement, the growing firm will open a two-story, 20,000-square-foot LEED certified office building in Palm Springs by the end of the year.
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The certification is awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. When a building is LEED certified it means that the building has been verified, by a third-party, as an environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy place to live or work.
LEED certification comes in different levels; platinum, gold or silver.
"The office will be the first LEED certified building in Palm Springs," said Chris Mills, AIA. "Sustainability is a hot button issue right now and it is something that we all need to realize. We have to do it; we need to do it because it's the right thing to do for the environment and for everyone on the Earth and it's got to start somewhere."
WWCOT designs a variety of public building types, including K-12 schools, such as Coral Mountain Academy in Coachella, CA.
Mills is a partner at WWCOT. He is a 46-year resident of Palm Springs and serves on the city council.
Mills' family roots in Palm Springs reach back to 1933 when his grandparents moved to the area. His mother went to high school in the city and Mills would have been born there, but there was no hospital at the time. He was born in Loma Linda.
After high school, Mills left the Inland Empire and went to school in Arizona where he earned his degree in architecture. He always knew he wanted to be an architect, even as a young boy.
"Ever since I was in third grade, I always wanted to be one," he said. "I don't know why, I always drew houses and buildings so I never had a doubt in my mind."
Mills once owned his own architectural firm in Palm Springs. But after years in the industry, Mills decided he wanted to merge with a larger firm. In May 2006, he achieved that goal and merged with WWCOT Architects and created WWCOT | Mills Architects, the Palm Springs office of the larger architecture firm.
The Indio Teen Center, one of several WWCOT-designed public buildings in California's Coachella Valley, provides a cohesive design that contributes to the prominence of city's public services program.
"I was a one-architect office with six employees and I was responsible for everything," Mills recalled. "So I was looking for an opportunity to merge. I wanted to connect with a firm that was a strong design-oriented firm and a firm that I felt could meld with me and my staff. I also felt that the Coachella Valley was growing and that there really needed to be a larger and stronger firm here that would be able to do larger more intricate and involved projects. The fact that WWCOT had an office out here at the time made it work out even better."
"We were competition to each other, but we believed in the same practices and had the same goals," said Pamela Touschner, FAIA, a partner of WWCOT. "Quite frankly, it just made sense to pool our resources and merge."
Touschner is the managing partner for the Palm Springs office. She joined WWCOT in 1993 and worked at the Santa Monica office. Touschner later moved to Palm Desert to be with her husband and to open the firm's Riverside office.
As a young girl, Touschner was discouraged in her endeavors to become an architect. But she persevered and earned a degree in architecture from Temple University in Philadelphia in 1985.
"I was told that I couldn't be an architect because I'm a girl," she said. "Well, I took up the challenge to prove a point and it turned out that I really liked it. I was lucky in that respect."
Touschner's passion, confidence and drive earned her respect in the architecture world. She is the immediate past president of the American Institute of Architects' California Council and currently serves as a regional director on the National AIA Board. She is chair of the Riverside County Regional Medical Center Foundation and co-chair of the ACE Mentoring Program in the Coachella Valley. That program provides opportunities for high school students to learn about design and construction careers.
"Hard work and confidence in what you are doing is important," she said. "That will help in shaping your career and your life."
Innovative and creative designs
WWCOT designs include public buildings, corporate interiors, master planning, residential and commercial developments, healthcare buildings and designs for companies in China.
WWCOT participates in competitions to design buildings for Chinese developers, but the firm's main business is in the United States. WWCOT has designed several projects throughout the Coachella Valley, including the recently completed 211-unit Palermo multifamily development and the 22-unit Palomino condominium project in Palm Springs.
With the desert as a stage, Mills designed Palermo to meld with the natural setting.
"Buildings are designed to fit the location," Mills said. "I don't like lines that separate or buildings that have a feeling of indoor and outdoor, they have to blend. I don't like to put a window in the wall; I like the wall to be the window."
Palermo is a resort-style gated community developed by Palm Springs-based developer Enterprise California.
A gated community of townhomes and villas, Palermo boasts a beautiful view of the majestic San Jacinto Mountains as a backdrop. The homes range from 1,275 square feet to 1,375 square feet and feature rich colors and textures of the desert with lush lawns and resort-style amenities.
The development is located at North Indian Canyon Drive and East San Rafael Road.
WWCOT prides itself on its commitment to excellence in design, economic discipline and quality control. The firm works closely with its clients to understand their needs and develops architecture that is innovative, on-time and on-budget.
"As an architect, I feel that I owe the client something special, something that fits their needs not just from a functional standpoint but from an aesthetic one too," Mills said. "WWCOT believes that architecture is art and no two [buildings] should be the same or they are not special."
Green practices
Dennis Tanida, AIA, is managing partner of the Riverside office of WWCOT. He is also the president of the American Institute of Architects' Inland Empire chapter and a board member of the U.S. Green Building Council.
The 211-unit Palermo multifamily development in Palm Springs, CA, was designed to blend the indoor and outdoor and capitalize on views of the San Jacinto Mountains.
With his experience, knowledge and understanding of green building, Tanida leads the firm's sustainable design efforts.
"I've been interested in sustainable design for 30 years," he said. "Back in high school I designed a house using solar energy for my physics class."
Since then, Tanida graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in architecture. He went on to work at Welton Becket Inc., now Ellerbe Becket, and helped in the design of the Ronald Reagan State office building in downtown Los Angeles. That building was designed to reduce energy costs.
WWCOT's new office building in Palm Springs, the Ramon Office Building, is also designed to be sustainable, Tanida said. One of the building's green components will be its parking lot. The lot is being built with recycled asphalt from a nearby road. The building is also one of nearly a dozen LEED certified projects WWCOT is designing, Tanida said. Most of those projects will be LEED silver certified with one being gold.
As a leader in the sustainable design movement, WWCOT has designed the Ramon Office Building, Palm Springs' first LEED-certified office building and the new location for WWCOT | Mills, the firm's local office.
As part of an effort to practice sustainability, Tanida chairs the firm's sustainable task force.
"Two members from each office collectively represent WWCOT's sustainable task force. We meet regularly to discuss issues of sustainability and to talk about being stewards of sustainable design," he said. "We want all of our offices to be green so we are developing resources and reference material that the entire firm can use."
WWCOT's Riverside office is practicing a green lifestyle. After Tanida took a trip to Japan and experienced their green lifestyle, he brought that mindset back to Riverside. Now employees at the office recycle and are conscious of the environment.
"Sustainability is a lifestyle change; it's very hard for a lot of people to live green. We live in such a throwaway society where things are packaged in crazy ways. We waste so much and don't recycle," Tanida said. "Even though we are bombarded by the media about green living, people still don't get it. So it's part of our mission to educate people. That's why I'm on the U.S. Green Building Council. Their mission is to educate as well."
Sustainable design means more than just saving energy, it means using recycled materials that aren't trucked in from hundreds of miles away. It also means buildings are constructed with the environment in-mind. That means the building uses natural resources such as sunlight.
"People talk about reducing our carbon footprint but what does that mean? It can be confusing, so what we try to do at WWCOT is design sustainable buildings," Tanida said. "We are cognizant of what materials are being used because sustainable design isn't all about energy. It's about creating an environment that is healthy. It may cost a little more, but the return on investment is greater; people will be happier and healthier, which results in higher productivity. It's not about the bottom line anymore, it's about the triple bottom line; economics, the environment and people."
"Dennis will help lead the firm into a green future, and his interest and passion for sustainability is an asset to WWCOT," Touschner said.
Touschner and Tanida worked together long before they met at WWCOT. The two once worked at Welton Becket when they were fresh out of college. Touschner left Welton Becket before Tanida and the two lost touch until they met again at a convention in Philadelphia years later.
"We talked and got reacquainted," Tanida said. "I realized she was with WWCOT. Pam's husband went to school with me at USC and we were friends, so we were somewhat connected. A couple of years later, I thought about changing offices. It turned out WWCOT needed someone for the Riverside office. Pam and I got together and talked. I joined the firm in 2001."
Tanida is no stranger to the building industry. He grew up working with his father in construction. The exposure piqued his curiosity about design. He pursued that interest with fervor and ended up with a degree in architecture.
One of the green design components of the Ramon Office Building is its parking lot, which will be built using asphalt recycled from a nearby road.
The founders
Chester A. Widom, FAIA, George Wein, AIA, and Adrian Cohen, FAIA, created the name of WWCOT Architects when they acquired O'Leary Terasawa in 1998.
The firm's history reaches back to 1964 when Widom opened shop as a small architecture firm specializing in construction and multifamily and single-family housing design.
Founding partner Widom is well-known as a premiere architect. For more than 40 years, he has designed and created buildings that have captured the imagination and inspired a new generation of architects. Widom was heavily involved in the design of the Sierra Tower in Los Angeles.
Apart from his duties at the firm, Widom currently serves on the executive committee of the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows.
Adrian Cohen is managing partner of WWCOT. He has more than 33 years of experience in the industry. Cohen and Widom's vision and drive are the foundations of the firm's continued success.
Cohen has served as president of the Guardians for the Jewish Home for the Aging. He has also held various positions with the AIA California Council and AIA Los Angeles Chapter.
With Widom and Cohen at the helm and with the support of their associates and partners including Tanida, Touschner and Mills, the firm's momentum and growth has no end in sight.
WWCOT plans to continue its push in sustainable design and hopes to be at the forefront as a leader and a teacher.
"I would hope we would become a leader in good and sustainable design," Tanida said. "Hopefully, with research and [development] on the theory of regenerative design we can do this work and teach others how do develop those types of projects. It's hard to predict what the next 10 years will bring but I'm open to the future; let it come."
WWCOT designed the Valley Bomb Squad and Training Facility in Granada Hills, CA, to become a LEED-certified facility, representing Los Angeles County's dedication to incorporating sustainable features in its public buildings.
April 2008 Issue