Join us on Thursday, July 1, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. EST for a case study: The Kendeda Building at Georgia Tech. Shan Arora, director of The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, will give us a virtual tour of “the greenest classroom in the U.S.” Bob Kovacs and Jimmy Mitchell will explain their involvement in the project, and all three will lead a discussion on this Living Building Challenge–certified triumph. We will learn about the design thinking, materials selections, systems, and construction methods that produced this regenerative building in a hot-humid climate.

Use this link to register for The BS* + Beer Show

Guest bios

Shan Arora is the Director of The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, a high-performance building that serves as a model through which sustainability principles and practices will be explored, tested, and disseminated to inspire change on the Georgia Tech campus and across the Southeast building industry. Georgia Tech constructed The Kendeda Building to Living Building Challenge 3.1 certification standards, the world’s most ambitious building performance standard. Prior to joining Georgia Tech in July 2018, Shan was with Southface Institute, where he worked with local and regional partners to increase the amount of clean energy generated in Georgia, promote energy efficiency in the built environment, and expand the region’s clean energy workforce. Shan has an undergraduate and a law degree from Emory University.

Bob Kovacs is Vice President of Preconstruction for Evans General Contractors, based in Alpharetta, GA. During his 30-year career, Bob has worked both in the field and in the office on residential and commercial construction projects ranging from $5000 bathroom remodels to $4 billion airport expansions. Bob has been heavily involved in trying to address the skilled trade shortage, including teaching residential and commercial construction courses at a local technical college, judging the TeamWorks competition for SkillsUSA at both the state and national levels, and serving on the industry advisory board for the construction program at the high school in his hometown. He has written numerous articles for the Journal of Light Construction, has presented at JLC Live, and has been a LEED AP since 2003.

Jimmy Mitchell started with Skanska in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Georgia Tech. He was one of Georgia’s first LEED managers, he created the Atlanta Mission Urban Garden, and he is a founding board member of the Lifecycle Building Center, a nonprofit based in Atlanta. His recent project experience includes the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design which achieved Living Building Challenge certification.

BS* + Beer Book Club

Because the hosts of the BS* + Beer Show all love to read, we thought we would celebrate the authors in our industry by adding a book club to the show every few months. We’ll announce the book, give you a few months to get it and read it, and conclude with a BS* + Beer Show episode where we will invite the author to join us, present, and take questions.

We have selected our fourth book: Musings of an Energy Nerd: Toward an Energy-Efficient Home by Martin Holladay, which can be purchased at the Taunton Store.

We hope you will pick up a copy and join the discussion on August 5, 2021.

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Kiley Jacques is senior editor at Green Building Advisor. She can be reached at [email protected].