Providence Community Center Blog

Delta Kappa Omega Foundation, Inc., in partnership with the City of Tallahassee and the Providence Neighborhood Association, today held a ribbon cutting ceremony to open doors of the Delta Kappa Omega / Providence Community Service Center.

The Providence Community Service Center is a 5,900 square foot multi-purpose building that will be open to the all community residents to use. The Center includes two meeting rooms, computer training space, a library and a central meeting hall.

Today the GBOI held a Providence Community Center Volunteer meeting. LEED project leader, Karin Zawrotney, ran the meeting.

This meeting was dedicated to Design Credit Review. The submission deadline of July 31st is quickly approaching. The meeting's objective was to review LEED Credits and the progress of the certification process. All team leaders and volunteers gave updates on each of their credits. I really seems like we are moving in the right direction!

Members of the Delta Kappa Omega Foundation were present for the meeting. They are happy with the progress that has been made.

Kevin Gardner and Gretchen Miller discuss their credits.

Volunteers discuss Team Leaders discuss credits.

On July 25th a few Volunteers did a site visit to see the progression of the building phase. Things are going as scheduled and the building looks great! I have posted some Interior and Exterior pictures of the progress to date.

This picture shows the front entrance to the community center.

Robyn Flowers, a volunteer, walks the hallways of the project.

  The wall of windows in the muliti-purpose room. It's a great way to bring natural daylighting into the space.

 View of the southeast corner of the site looking from Highland Street.

    Today at the GBOI meeting we discussed possible deadlines the team would set for itself.  We were also briefed on the site meeting that took place last Tuesday  the 14th.  The deadline set for Design Credit submittal is July 31st, 2011.  The design credits are marked with a crayon on the scorecard next to the corresponding credit, while the construction credits are associated with the hammer and nail.

    Last Tuesday, June 14th, members of the GBOI Team met at the project site on Highland St. here in Tallahassee and reviewed the building components for regional and recycled content credits.  We are doing our best to communicate with the Providence Community Center Project team to provide guidance for credit compliance.  IAQ issues were also addressed; proper protection of air ducts was explained.  Also, material selection is an ongoing process and previously selected materials on site were noted for the Regional and Local Materials credit. 

    The project is now 28% of 30% compliant with the requirement and also has reached 5% recycled material.  The project is on track to achieve 40 credits which would put us in the low end of LEED Certified.  The next meeting has been set for July 12th where team leader Rick Polteveque will give a presentation on energy modeling.  The last meeting before the design credit submission deadline will be held on July 26th, 2011.  This Design Credit Review meeting will provide an opportunity for Team Leaders to approve Volunteers' credit documentation and resolve any remaining questions/issues before the Design Credit Submittal deadline.

(posted for Jennifer Stewart)

The GBOI meeting was held at 3:30pm on the second floor conference room at the Renaissance Building. The purpose of the meeting was to acknowledge the team leaders for each LEED category, and to allow the volunteers to sign up for credits that had not yet been assigned.

Linda Huffman first gave a demonstration on how to use the USGBC site as a reference once a volunteer has been assigned a credit, and also a demonstration for the team leaders on how to use the BOX.net website. There was also a discussion on how a LEED Pre-requisite differed from a LEED credit because there were a greater number of new volunteers who have not yet been exposed to LEED, therefore clarification was needed. Because there were a handful of new volunteers, she suggested that towards the end of the meeting, the group should break up into each LEED Category for the team members to know which volunteers were assigned to them.

By the next meeting, it was expressed by the team leaders that all volunteers should have some familiarity with their assigned credit. Each volunteer should know the intent of their assigned credit and also the requirements needed to achieve it, so that by the next meeting a question and answer discussion can be integrated into the meeting.

On Friday March 18th the GBOI held the first Providence Community Center Volunteer Orientation Meeting.  Linda Huffman, the project coordinator led the meeting.

The meeting consisted of a group of local Architects, Engineers, Landscape Architects, Interior Designers, Community Leaders, and FAMU School of Architecture Students.                                                                              

Each person introduced themselves, and explained why they were interested in volunteering for the project. Team leaders were picked according to their expertise and a discussion took place about how the LEED Credits would be distributed. All the volunteers seem very excited about this project and we cannot wait to to get started.

The next GBOI (Green Building Outreach Initiative) Volunteer Meeting will be held Tuesday, May 10, 2011 from 3:30 - 5:00 p.m. at the Renaissance Center, 2nd Floor Conference Room, 435 N. Macomb St., in Tallahassee.

We held the LEED Contractor Training this morning for the Green Building Outreach Initiative Project - the Delta Kappa Omega Providence Community Service Center. Kevin Gardner led the meeting and provided the contractor, Weser Khufu, with a credit checklist, recycled content/regional content table, and clear and specific direction on how to achieve the credits. The meeting was held at Huffman Associates Studio for Architecture which has graciously provided meeting space for all of the Green Building Outreach Initiative meetings. Delta Kappa Omega Foundation board members Carolyn Jones and Bertha Murray attended the training session as well as GBOI Program Director, Linda Huffman.