No thanks, you say. Building and maintaining a good resource library is trouble enough. Learning the products, cultivating relationships with the manufacturers' representatives and reading trade magazines to keep up on what's new is a time consuming and never-ending job. Doubling the work seems unthinkable, but do it you must-if you want to design your projects in a sustainable way.
Every designer knows that a good resource library is essential to good design.
Finding what you want when you want it often means the difference between a well executed project and one that falls short. Likewise, becoming a credible environmental designer means having specific knowledge and resources at your fingertips, organized in such a way to be immediately accessible. How to do this is an oft-asked, legitimate question and one I'll attempt to answer with the help of some of my colleagues. In preparation for this column I spoke with designers at some of the best firms in the green arena who generously shared their experiences. While these firms range in size from very large to quite small, each has established similar goals and has experienced comparable problems.