Promoting a Green Future

Atelier Ten is pleased to announce the latest promotions in our US offices. Please join us in giving our promoted staff a green thumbs up!

Rufei Wang, Associate, New York 

I’m most excited and proud of the Obama Presidential Center project that I worked together with Leanora Paniccia. I joined the project in the early concept phase as a design staff, and as the project has progressed, I have been heavily involved throughout all design phases and have taken on more and more responsibilities. The project is targeting LEED Platinum, SITES Silver, and ILFI Zero Energy certification. It is currently under construction and I look forward to the project completion! 

I am looking forward to working on more projects that help reduce both embodied carbon emissions and operational carbon emissions. It’s becoming a more important issue to tackle in the next decade to fight climate change.  

Nikita Jathan, Senior Environmental Designer, New York 

I am most proud of my work on The Princeton University East Campus Site Development project, which integrated teams across site, infrastructure, and buildings, and we pushed the envelope on sustainability targets applied to all aspects of the project. Now, I’m able to see how these projects continue to guide and connect to sustainability on the wider campus, and I feel very proud to have been a small part of this great effort.

I’m excited to continue leading the Resilience working group and piloting this process on new projects in 2023. Our Resilience Working Group has developed a Context Analysis – similar to A10’s Climate Analysis, which assesses climatic considerations at the start of each project, the Context Analysis will help us better understand the communities we work in, and integrate sustainability in a more meaningful way.

Rhys Charlton, Environmental Designer, San Francisco 

I’ve enjoyed working on the new San Mateo County Civic Center by supporting their net zero energy mass timber LEED platinum aspirations. I was also part of a great deep dive on wind power earlier this year, with the goal of understanding its applicability for power generation in urban locations. 

In my new role as Environmental Designer, I am excited to continue to help make software and tool tutorials for our projects. Receiving feedback on those is a great way to build knowledge. I’m also pumped to bring my passive house education to the next level — maybe even take the exam! 

David Moore, Environmental Designer, San Francisco 

I’m most proud of my work on a confidential masterplan in the Bay Area where I examined different graywater/blackwater reuse scenarios to determine what it would take to achieve zero water waste for the project. I enjoyed the large scale of the project, the varied program of the site, and learning how to use the Atelier Ten water balance tool for the first time.  

I’m looking forward to further expanding my knowledge of embodied carbon and diving into some new projects with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) scope. I’m particularly interested in exploring the embodied carbon associated with construction emissions, waste, and prefabrication, as well as incorporating categories that are typically excluded, such as MEP systems. 

Yifan Li, Environmental Designer, New York 

The Discovery Partners Institute project is one of the many great projects I have worked on at Atelier Ten. And it’s one of the projects I proudly feel that our early phase study can impact and improve the design results. I worked on this project’s daylight and solar radiation study, starting from the concept phase. After each study round, façade design recommendations are provided with the simulation results. The initial 90% window-to-wall ratio glass box was finally reduced, and the indoor illuminance level increased to a more comfortable range. 

The Inova Landmark and Springfield Hospital project is a project I enjoy working on now. I’m mainly working on the daylight and thermal comfort study for this project, and both studies can help the architects with the façade optimization. Different glazing assemblies with or without frit are tested to find the best option for indoor daylight environments and to improve thermal comfort during wintertime. This project will also do the LCA study to reduce carbon emissions and meet targeted LEED points. Glazing assembly types will impact the LCA study results. I’m excited to see how these studies and parameters can be balanced and meet our sustainable and wellness design goals!