Beginning in September 2009 emersion DESIGN launched a new community outreach initiative in order to give back to the community, as well as promote others to do so as well. As such, we requested that product representatives who wanted to host “Lunch and Learn” sessions at our office not provide us with a lunch. Instead, we ask that the product representatives donate the total expenditure that would have been used to provide lunch for the “Lunch and Learn” to local meal centers or food banks. As product representatives host “Lunch and Learn” sessions at our office as frequent as one to three times a week.

A local construction firm is beginning design work on a nearly $6 million project at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The contract — to renovate and rebuild an optics lab — will allow Messer Construction Co. to continue to work on a base project when two current projects close in the next few months. The construction firm — the sixth largest in the Dayton region in terms of 2011 local billings — teamed up with emersion DESIGN, an architecture firm in Cincinnati, and Advanced Engineering Consultants, an engineering firm from Columbus, to complete the design portion of the contract.

Over the past three years fifteen of your neighbors have devoted thousands of hours with the goal of converting the underutilized and ugly corner of Kennedy and Montgomery into a Cultural Center. During that long journey we have secured three non-profit organizations to serve as Cultural Center partners—Cincinnati Art Museum, KH Montessori Center, and KH Arts Center.

Everything ages with time—even the beautifully constructed buildings of the bygone days that scatter across Wright Patterson Air Force Base. The Corps of Engineers Louisville District is working to change that, by partnering with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, to undertake renovation projects of several historical facilities.

We will move into the former Art Academy building by the end of this year. I know that might seem hard to believe, given the presence of only a skeleton within the 1887 structure, but we are actually on or even slightly ahead of schedule (and below budget). We have already started ordering boxes, and those most worried about where our stuff goes have started planning our move. By the last week of December, those of us who are not preoccupied with the large crowds of visitors that usually come to the Art Museum during the holidays will install ourselves in the offices on the first and second floor of the renovated structure. By spring 2013, we will have moved the stacks into the basement of the adjacent French Wing, and we will open our new Mary R. Schiff Library and knowledge center on the third floor. Then you will be able to walk straight through the baroque and medieval galleries and into this new light-filled space overlooking downtown.

Just as cars can be judged based on their fuel economy, buildings can be similarly measured and compared against the national average. The Energy Use Intensity (EUI) rating is a standard metric for a building’s energy economy. By taking the building’s annual energy use and converting it to kBtu[i]per square foot per year, the building receives an EUI rating.

In honor of Earth Day and everything environmental, emersion DESIGN has developed a list of 10 easy ways to make your organization more sustainable. The best part, most of them are cost neutral or better!

emersion DESIGN’s headquarters has recently been going through some fantastic changes!

emersion DESIGN at Ball State University’s Job Fair Monday, February 20

The emersion DESIGN office will be closed Friday, December 23rd, Monday December 26th, and January 2nd for the holidays! Please email us at info@emersiondesign.com or leave a voice-mail at 513.841.9100 with any questions during this time and we’ll respond as soon as possible. We wish you a safe and happy holiday season.

Our staff members are constantly up-ing the game and achieving newer and better accreditation.