Michelle Lambert
Username
Michelle Lambert
Proposer First Name
Michelle
Proposer Email
michelle@lambertsustainability.com
Proposer Last Name
Lambert
Boston 2021 Areas of Focus
Proposer Company/Organization
Lambert Sustainability
Proposer Phone
(781) 801-0233
Proposer Job Title
Founding Principal
Proposer Additional Info
Michelle Lambert is an architect and a green building consultant with accreditations in LEED, Passive House and Envision, as well as an educator with nineteen years of sustainable design experience in both practice and teaching. After having led the sustainability efforts at several of Boston’s large architecture and design firms, she took the leap and started her own firm in 2017. Lambert Sustainability is a sustainable design consulting firm based in the Boston area. It provides project management services for projects pursuing LEED Certification as well as other green building rating systems. Michelle also currently teaches in the Tufts’ Graduate program for Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning.
Proposed Session Description
The restoration of historic buildings can be years in the making with many tough decisions to weigh along the path. From the evaluation of a building’s intrinsic and cultural value to more granular decisions about design and materials, sustainability and a deeper understanding of the embodied carbon within existing buildings can and should be part of the decision-making process.
Architect Ross Cameron and Sustainability Consultant Michelle Lambert will present the challenges, solutions, and lessons learned during the preservation and renewal of Emerson College’s Little Building, a beautiful 100-year old structure overlooking Boston Common. The wisdom of hindsight through the ten year-long process has illuminated many lessons, most notably the argument for integrating sustainability and climate mitigation strategies into the early conversations when deciding whether to undertake a restoration project. In a region saturated with older existing buildings and historic structures, participants will benefit from hearing this discussion of what worked well, what challenges were encountered, what the team wished they had considered throughout the project, and why an embodied carbon analysis and discussion should be part of future building reuse projects.
Diversity and Inclusiveness
While the session topic does not address equity directly, Lambert Sustainability is a certified Massachusetts WBE.
Learning Objectives
Understand the diverse priorities in valuing historic properties – from the client’s financial considerations to the building’s place in a community/campus to the sustainability goals—and how to analyze whether to keep an historic building or tear down and start new.
Learn best practices on choosing materials from a sustainability standpoint and how to balance trade-offs against the project as a whole.
Dig into the particular issue of embodied carbon in building materials and how to perform an analysis in order to consider this impact when evaluating an existing property using the Tally tool.
Highlight the urgency of acknowledging the value of embodied carbon in existing structures in meeting our carbon reduction targets locally and globally.
Has this session been presented before?
Yes
When and Where?
Elements of this project were presented at ABX 2020 with the title of “Building Reuse is Climate Action: Verification Methodologies”
Target Audiences Level of Expertise
Level 2 - Some prior knowledge helpful.
Session Format Details
Two 20-minute presentations followed by 20 minutes of Q&A
Recommended Length
60-minute session
Strongest Content Connection - Boston 2021
Comments about your speaker roster
Ross Cameron and Michelle Lambert have been collaborating on projects for years. Their deep knowledge of the topics will make for an informative presentation, while their approachable presentation styles contribute to a lively Q&A.
Reviewer 1
Nugent, Julia
Proposal #
176
Committee Decision
Rejected
Presenters
Full Description
This session will be an honest discussion about the multitude of decisions and trade-offs encountered during a complex building renovation project. Hearing from a team fresh off a decade-long restoration project will give attendees a realistic understanding of the overall process, trade-offs made in choosing materials, the challenges of balancing different priorities—such as energy conservation vs. historic accuracy alongside budget, schedule, and programming constraints- what research informed their decisions, and what the team wished they’d known at the outset. The architects undertook a careful study of material options that could accurately replicate the existing deteriorated facade components while balancing aesthetics, structural impact, durability and constructability. Using state of the art point cloud scanning and advanced 3-dimensional digital modelling, the team was able to re-create portions of the neo-gothic façade to a high level of accuracy, using a modern innovative concrete material to replicate the original 1917 design.
The session will also explain the process of undertaking and interpreting the results of a cutting-edge embodied carbon analysis post construction using the Tally for Revit tool—an increasingly important and relatively new topic critical to whole building sustainability and carbon reduction. Ultimately, the session will illustrate an argument for re-using/repurposing existing structures as a means for reducing embodied carbon. The speakers will provide details on the tool, the analysis process and interpretation of the results in order to provide motivation for others to undertake similar studies on their own projects.