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MISSION STATEMENT AND OVERVIEW

DEWEES DESIGN AND DONNIE DEWEES - A LIFETIME OF SUSTAINABILITY

MISSION STATEMENT

“DeWees Design under the leadership of Principal and Director of Design and Construction, Donnie DeWees, firmly believes that Sustainability and the Environment are crucial issues given our current critical place in history and must be considered at the very inception of any project and carried forward from the Conceptual Design Phases, through Construction Documents Phases and concluding with the Construction Phase. It should be the driver of the Design Process and not just relegated to being a follower, and it must involve the Design Team in its entirety along with the Client”

“It is DeWees Design’s hope, subsequent responsibility and ultimate task to commit to these Sustainability efforts in order to provide the most successful project possible while contributing to care of the Earth upon which we all live.”

Donnie DeWees – 2024

(Donnie DeWees has been LEED-AP Certified since 2003 and a member of the the U.S. Green Building Council.

PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES AND METHODOLOGIES –

ADAPTIVE RE-USE VS. NEW CONSTRUCTION – New Construction utilizes enormous amounts of resources. Remodeling, renovating or adding on to existing facilities rather than tearing down and building from the ground up should always be analyzed carefully at the onset of any project.

EFFICIENT QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES – From the notion of, “Less is More”…a smaller, more efficiently designed building or remodel of an existing buildings can save on overall building Gross Square Footages, therefore requiring less building materials, less construction waste and more time-effective construction schedules.

SUSTAINABILITY AS A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH — DeWees Design carefully selects its Collaborators and Consultants Team in order to establish a Design Team that has the same commitment to Sustainability. Each engineering discipline is with finding creative solutions to typical engineering methods that take advantage of any potential sustainability opportunities.

PHOTO-VOLTAICS – The use of solar panels for project MUST be addressed from the onset of the project. DeWees Design takes the approach that the architecture should not only lend itself to the use photo-voltaics but it should be driven by the approach in the form of saw-toothed roof elements, cleretories and light monitors.

Below are a few examples of the projects that Donnie DeWees has designed under the auspices of DeWees Design and as a Project Design Director for other firms.

Please refer to these projects in the PROJECTS section of this website for more complete descriptions of the Sustainable features utilized for each one.

PASSIVE, PHYSICAL SOLUTIONS

Incorporated into the architecture of a building, passive, physical solutions can create an architectural language of its own and serve as a tangible example of the sustainability efforts of the Client, Design Team and ultimate User of a given facility.

DESIGN APPROACHES –

BUILDING CONFIGURATIONS – Developing the most efficient Floor Plan configurations that will allow for smaller buildings while meeting the building program established by the client provides for literal, “smaller footprints” and subsequently a smaller impact on the earth for the Construction process as well as the Operational aspects of a given building.

ROOFS – Roof forms that take advantage of prevailing solar orientations through the use of clerestories, light monitors and saw-tooth roofs. Highly efficient skylight systems in the appropriate applications may be used to bring natural light into buildings, especially large expanses of open space. These methodologies can drastically reduce the need for artificial lighting.

EXTERIOR COURTYARDS – Shaded courtyards on Northern sides of buildings to allow for outdoor working spaces while outdoor spaces on Southern sides of buildings are optimum spaces for landscaping.

SOLAR ORIENTATION AND DAYLIGHTING – Orienting buildings is such a manner to take advantage of specific beneficial solar orientations and creating an architectural language for the individual orientations of each facade of a building.

- NORTHERN FACING FACADES – Utilizing large expanses of energy efficient glazing systems.
- EASTERN AND WESTERN FACING FACADES – Utilizing vertical shading devices to control direct sunlight into the interior spaces.
- SOUTHERN FACING FACADES- Utilizing horizontal shading devices and light shelves to control direct sunlight into the interior spaces.

BUILDING MATERIALS – Specifying not just interior finish building materials that are sustainable but the actual construction building materials that meet or exceed local sustainability requirements:

- Source local and regional building materials whenever possible.
- Specify building materials that have high level of recycled materials and ARE recyclable themselves in the long future of a building.
- Develop highly efficient structural steel configurations based on logical structural diagrams.

LANDSCAPING – Working hand-in-hand with Landscape Architect colleagues, drought-tolerant, low water use planting palettes are designed as a complimentary language to that of the architecture. DeWees Design considers the Landscaping a part of the entire design of a project and not merely the places where the architecture isn’t.

BUSINESS PRACTICES – DeWees Design strives to, “put our money where our mouths are” by adopting the following sustainable measures for the actual studio:

- Select Collaborators and Consultants that have the same commitment to Sustainability and the Environment.
- Continues to allow for a hybrid work environment that came to fruition during the Covid-19 pandemic by allowing its employees and collaborators to work from home as well as from DeWees Design based on individual schedules and the demands of each individual client and subsequent project.
- Encourage employees, collaborators and consultants to carpool and rideshare to off-site meetings.
- Encourage utilizing the plethora of technological tools available in order to minimize individual travel.
- Utilize on-line submittal procedures for Plans and Documents submission to all public agencies whenever possible.
- Recycle physical drawings whenever possible.

CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE - PPM ADINISTRATION BUILDING - NORTHRIDGE, CALIFORNIA

CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE - PPM ADINISTRATION BUILDING - NORTHRIDGE, CALIFORNIA - LIGHT MONITORS FOR NATURAL, CONTROLLED LIGHT

VENTURA COUNTY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT - FIRE STATION #56 - MALIBU, CALIFORNIA

VENTURA COUNTY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT - FIRE STATION #56 - MALIBU, CALIFORNIA - LIGHT MONITORS INSPIRED BY LIFEGUARD TOWERS FOR NATURAL, CONTROLLED LIGHT