For Immediate Release

What is a Charrette?

Stuart, Florida  -  Charrette is a French word meaning “cart”.  Various architectural school legends hold that at the Ecole des Beaux Arts  in 19^th Century Paris, professors circulated a cart, or “charrette”, to collect final drawings to be juried, while students were frantically putting final touches on their work running along beside the cart, or jumping onboard.  The modern usage describes a series of meetings and design sessions where everyone comes together to accelerate the design and decision process, encouraging people to abandon their usual working patterns and “think outside the box.”  

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With a desire to roll up our sleeves and begin work, Ocean Gate General Contractors, Inc. has scheduled their first Charrette for their new project, The Eco Center ,  Wednesday, at 10am at the jobsite, 950 S.E. Monterey Road. This is our kick off meeting to begin the design work on the planned 20,000 square foot green building.   We are creating a living laboratory of what it takes to build a green building that will achieve a platinum LEED certification by the United States Green Building Council, their highest level of energy and resource efficiency.  

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“We have selected a group of local professionals, because at the end of the day, I really wanted this project to be for the local community, built by the local community” said Mark MacDonald, President of Ocean Gate.  We received many interesting proposals, and we are proud to announce our design team:

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Construction Manager:  Ben Herd, LEED AP, Project Manager, Ocean Gate General Contractors, Inc.

Architect:  Nicole L. Norton-Gozdz, R.A., LEED AP, Crossroads Architecture, Inc.

LEED Consultant:  Kyle M. Abney, LEED AP, Abney + Abney Green Solutions  

Structural Engineer:  Brian J. Maskol, P.E., Summit Engineering, Inc.

Electrical Engineer:        Timothy Charles Trewyn, P.E., Fort Pierce Engineering, Inc.

Mechanical Engineer:    Eric J. Svoboda, P.E., LEED AP, Fort Pierce Engineering, Inc.

Civil Engineer:  Jerry Compton, P.E., Creech Engineers, Inc.

Land Planning and Landscape Architecture:  Donald J. Cuozzo, Houston Cuozzo Group, Inc.

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 In this challenging economy, Ocean Gate is investing in educating their staff.  We have three LEED Accredited Professionals, and five people studying to take the test.  We are all going to learn together what it takes to build a green project in a cost effective way.  Our goal is to model green building practices with cost efficiency.  This project will be a resource for our community of what works, and how companies can achieve energy and resource efficiency with their own businesses.  We plan to make our conference space available to the community to experience what a green building and green building practices are all about.   The facility will offer two suites for lease, so it isn’t too early to reserve your space to join us. TheEcoCenter.com website is coming soon. 

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Our Construction.  Your Future Environment, Watch it Happen