The lavish interior of The Empire Room on the 48^th floor of Dallas’ Elm Place temporarily turned green as it hosted the US Green Building Council's (USGBC) North Texas Chapter for its third annual members’ gala Jan 11. USGBC Board Director David Rodriguez said, “This gala is a reward for all of the volunteers who have put a lot of hard work into spreading the mission of the chapter, which is sustainable, high-performance design and construction while taking the environment into consideration.”

About 300 attendees were expected to join in celebrating the association’s growth by making new acquaintances and catching up with old ones. Guests, including construction, engineering and architectural professionals as well as representatives of local municipalities, were treated to live jazz music, drinks, hors d’oeuvres and door prizes as they networked.

Among the event’s features was a set of sustainable project exhibits. Companies that participated in the showcase included BRW Architects; Dan Fette Builders Inc; Ferrier Custom Homes; Gensler; Harrison, Walker & Harper; Perkins + Will; t howard + associates and VAI Architects/Mitchell Enterprises. “The projects don’t have to be LEED projects, but some of them are, and the projects are commercial and residential and in between—projects that are either in the design stage or in the construction stage. And we’re recognizing the firms that submitted entries that were selected for the showcase,” Rodriguez said.

Students from the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of North Texas also attended the gala and got a chance to show off their exhibits and win a scholarship. “The students are called ‘emerging green builders.’ One of the emerging green builders died in a tragic accident, so we’ve created a memorial fund,” he said.

Another of the evening’s activities was the election of the chapter’s 2007 board of directors.  Rodriguez said the election of the 2007 vice chair will take place at the association’s February meeting.

Chairman of the Board: Michael Kawecki

Treasurer: Jackson Murphy 

Secretary: Francois de Kock

Directors: Jane Ahrens, Dale Ball (re-elected), David Rodriguez, Donna Powell (re-elected), Gary Gene Olp, Ken Sidebottom, Robert van Buren, Zaida Basora, Denise Bates and Rachael Green

Chair Emeriti: Kirk Teske, Janna Connor and Betsy del Monte

Kelli Trungale is the editor for DFW Construction News. For additional information regarding this article, please contact Kelli at dfweditor@constructionnews.net. All comments are the sole responsibility of the author. 

This article was originally posted 1/23/07.