by Jeff Serbin | Mar 25, 2014 | Architecture, Blog, Planning, Uncategorized
Continued from “Is Vertical Farming Feasible? : (Click for part 1)
Several factors play into the economical feasibility. First you have to look at the building or structure required. As an architect, I am a bit more knowledgeable about that piece of the puzzle. Skyscrapers are one of the most expensive “land” in the world. Some quick math below.
Lets assume that land is worth $1.00/s.f. (conservative number). The owner of a skyscraper can expect to pay more than 200(x) that per s.f. for his building. Add the costs of electricity to pump the water up the vertical rise and keep the plants bathed in artificial sunlight all day. The concept appears to be an inefficient mess. Looking at those numbers, you need one thing to happen, prices of food to increase significantly. Lets not all chant that at the same time.
So if building structures are not economically feasible, what about adaptive reuse? This is the process of reusing an old site or building for purpose other than which it was built or designed for. This is happening right here in Mesa where Apple is reusing a building created by First Solar. For more info, click here. The idea is to purchase a building for cents on the dollar to make it economically viable.
Vertical Farm Adaptive Reuse Example
Recently a vertical farm opened in a suburb of Chicago. It is not as vertical as a high rise, but sits upon 2 floors of an existing structure. It is within an abandoned warehouse of 90,000 s.f. It is called FARMED HERE. It allows this facility to grow plants within an existing structure indoors, away from bugs, diseases, pesticides and weather impacts. It uses an aquaponic system and can operate discharging virtually no water. The water is recirculated and also raises fish. It’s products are sold in some familiar stores such as Whole Foods. This supports many local grocers within the Chicago area.
Vertical Farming Big Ideas
So with the economic crisis that has left so many abandoned buildings and empty malls in its wake, is this a viable solution?
Could this be a support for local farming close to home with minimal transportation costs? With the stats that by the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth’s population will reside in urban centers have an impact on our farm land?
If we are living within cities, can we bring the farming of food, not feed, with us in a more economical footprint?
So What buildings in Maricopa County, Arizona would be ideal to develop a vertical Farm?
I believe its worth DOODLING about.
by Jeff Serbin | Mar 18, 2014 | Architectural Planning, Architecture, Blog, Graphics, Planning, Uncategorized
I came across a competition from Google that caught my eye. Google Doodles is an art form which uses the Google logo and modifies it to signify a holiday or highlight a known person’s birthday or achievements.
Doodle, Professor Doug MacNeil, University of Arizona
The competition theme this year was ……
“If I could invent one thing to make the world a better place …..” Before there was an airplane, there were doodles of cool flying machines. And before there was a submarine, there were doodles of magical underwater sea explorers. Since the beginning of time, ideas big and small, practical and playful, have started out as doodles. And we are ready for more.
By the time you read this, the competition may be over and beside that, you would need to be a young artist (grades K-12). As I was driving my 7th grader to the Luke Air Force Base Show in Glendale, Arizona (how apropo is that – flying machines), we were having a discussion about what invention could make the world a better place.
So my first thought was about living in the desert of Arizona and the lack of water. A growing theme (no pun intended) throughout the Southwest United States. Just this year, we went for 2 months without rain, yet our taps still delivered water and the farmlands still grew. It’s like magic.
Buckeye Canal
Living in the West Valley of Phoenix Metropolitan area, especially amongst the farmland, one thinks about food or feed depending on what mouth it may be going in.
Feed
INTERESTING WATER FACT – I learned this year that Palo Verde Nuclear Plant uses 100% effluent water (yes cleaned toilet water) to cool their reactors, about 20 billion gallons per year or 40-50,000 gallons a minute at full operating power to cool their reactors and create steam. Steam is what generates the energy. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! For more Nuclear info, click here!
So with all the land that is dedicated to farmland and all the water that is spread out over that land evaporating to the heavens, it made me think of an idea called vertical farming. I saw this idea some while back in a Popular Science and Wired Magazine.
A Very Brief History of Vertical Farming
The term was first coined in a book in 1915 called “vertical farming,” by Gilbert Ellis Bailey. It is still available on Amazon Books, but probably will need to be dusted off once you get it. This book was written after the skyscraper was invented in the middle 1800’s. Just for some historical reference, the Flatiron building, one of the first skyscrapers in New York City was built in 1902. It is 285′ tall and 22 stories.
Flatiron Building in New York City
Many concepts in history have been dreamed up. Even as early as 1909, Life Magazine published a building that cultivated food. In 1922, Le Corbusier’s, one of the great architects of the 20th century, proposed vertical farming. Le Courbusier’s phrase was “Vertical Garden City” which came from a sketch developed in 1937.
The technology precedents that make vertical farming possible can be traced back to horticultural history through the development of greenhouse technology. Hydroponics have also made it possible to grow plants without dirt. The use of hydroponics dates back to 1627. Fore more info, click here.
Even Walmart has a kit one can buy to do you own hydroponics at home.
Walmart Hydroponic Kit for sale on website
Science fiction books also reference these concepts. A recent read “Dust” by Hugh Howey has references to vertical farming within underground silos. The characters inhabited silos after the earth was created un-inhabitable. It has grow lights and water systems like today’s vertical farms.
by Jeff Serbin | Feb 26, 2014 | Blog
For the past 10+ years, I have been fortunate to be part of the Data Center industry. I have learned how our lives are so dependent upon its availability 24/7. How information should be readily available, regardless of what the weather is like.
On president’s day, when I should have been making paper airplanes out of Hamilton’s, I had a small storm on my computer system. My network went down. No worry!!!!!!!! I couldn’t see my 15 years of hard work stored on a device the size of my hand. A bead of sweat begin to form on my brow, but I have systems in place. Those Data Center company’s have taught me well.
Spending a bit upfront on infrastructure can save you from a tsunami of tears.
So I went to my server and did step 1, re-boot. With my steel work boots on, I lightly tapped the reset button. A screen came up which made me feel like I kicked my own self in the stomach.
Hard drive failure? Window System corrupt? Virus?
I had a mirrored hard drive. A complete second copy which runs concurrently with the first for this exact scenario.
The mirrored drive was an image from 4 months ago (Oh Sh…., I guess I need to check this more often!!!!!!!!!!, lesson learned.) Now it was like my steel boot kicked my in the ass. My stomach sank a bit more.
Countless meetings with Data Center developers and engineers taught me not to rely on one back up scenario. In Data Centers, backup generators, batteries, transfer switches and PDU’s ensure that systems never go down.
Data Center Power Room with backup connections
Hopefully all my systems ensure my 24/7 mentality. I went to look at my OFF-SITE BACKUP, a mirrored drive in the cloud. What if that weather storm sends a bolt of lighting which burns down your office? That mirrored drive in your office would be useless then.
Fortunately, all the data was retained on the cloud backup. My hunger came back and a smile was once again on my face. Having a backup is critical to ensure that loss of data or disruption in work is avoidable or minimized.
WHAT IS THE LESSON?
On your computer network, at minimum do the following:
a) Run a mirrored drive of your information. This can be achieved in many ways. Consultant a computer network specialist who knows the latest technology.
b) Run off-site storage. This may be utilizing a cloud based service provided by a company, such as Carbonite or Mozy. Relatively cheap considering the cost of downtime or loss of information.
You can also set up your own server in a Data Center and rent space utilizing a company like AIS (American Internet services) www.americanis.net. If your a bit paranoid of sending your data into the cloud, a home server can be set up to store off-site information from your office.
c) On an external hard drive or NAS drive (short for Network attached storage), arrange a nightly backup of all files that where changed that day. This is another line of defense to ensure only a days worth of lost work. That’s assuming your internal mirrored drive and your off-site cloud mirror fails.
d) As a last resort, on an external hard drive, do a frequent backup of all your past files. Its like keeping those old business documents in a storage locker. This can be achieved with automatic software set to a specific schedule (could be weekly or monthly depending on how much you love your info), however check often to ensure its working properly.
MORE RECOMMENDATIONS
Server information is only one layer of backup protection. I also recommend the following if you are dependent on your work station computer to be up and running. I have personally implemented the following:
2 CPU’s running duplicate programs. If one computer component fails (mother board, network card, video card, power supply monitor etc.), you have a backup machine to use while the other is in for service. Also with two machines, you can run email/internet on one, while running the memory intensive programs on the other. I have saved myself countless times using this philosophy.
by Jeff Serbin | Feb 19, 2014 | Architectural Planning, Architecture, Blog, Planning
Creating an office building is about designing an environment that creates a place for the workforce to perform their tasks efficiently while enabling the building owners to maintain their assets easily.
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This 60,000+ square foot office building was designed to create that comfortable work environment. This sustainable facility utilizes low energy building components by incorporating the latest technologies. The building is designed with an efficient rentable to common space ratio, high performance exterior skin, low water use fixtures, energy efficient mechanical and electrical systems and environmental sensitive materials. It was designed with LEED GOLD in mind.
Some interesting facts about latest technologies.
The shell of the building is just the beginning. Once tenants begin to occupy the floors, the real magic begins with space planning to create unique micro environments that satisfy the users needs while being efficient with space. The more wasted space there is, the more rent they need to pay and space to maintain.
Space after tenant improvement
SEE ALSO: Tailor Your Office Tenant Improvements
by Jeff Serbin | Feb 6, 2014 | Architectural Planning, Architecture, Blog, Collaboration, Planning
Have you heard the term “He is a wise old owl?” You can find many wise owls at Wickenburg’s local senior center, Wise Owl Senior Center, located just south of the Santa Fe Railroad tracks. It’s facility was founded in 1979 and has been wisely used over the years.
The existing 6,500 square foot facility has seen many card games (hopefully no strip poker), bingo games (I22), musical bands (I heard the Grateful Dead played there), billiard games (part of Color of Money was filmed there) that have been played in its facility over the years. The center has outgrown its use and the Foundation for Senior Living who operate it, are looking to revitalize the establishment, once it can gather enough gold nuggets from the local mines in and around Wickenburg within its talons.
Serbin Studio first task was a ‘programming session’ or fact gathering, working with the facility managers and users to get a grasp on how the facility operates within the existing building and how it operates. The current building lies outside the historic downtown core of Wickenburg and is camouflaged, like an owl, into the surrounding neighborhoods. Like an Owl who can turn its head as much as 270 degrees, Serbin Studio took its design a step further and designed a facility which looks a full 360 degrees.
The design is two stories and 14,000+ square feet, reflecting on the historic fabric of Wickenburg which is influenced by many things: mining, railroad and the ranch lifestyle. As an owl flys silently, the building pleasantly surprise its users once they step foot into the private courtyard. It’s amenities include a full service Dining Room and associated Kitchen and food distribution on its first floor. The second floor contains meeting rooms, a game room, computer center to email the grandchildren, offices and conference rooms to manage all the programs they offer. The second floor also offers and outdoor patio with views to the local mountain ranges so you can keep your eyes on those claims you may have in them mountains. It’s also a great place to watch the summer monsoon’s roll in from the North.
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The project is only in the conceptual phases, however we hope the design will provide momentum to allow the facility to expand.
