Sean Redfern has been named senior associate at Durkee, Brown, Viveiros & Werenfels Architects Inc. Since joining the firm in 2000, Redfern has been the project manager for the Pell Chafee Performance Center, Pearl Street Lofts, the Gamm Theater expansion at the Pawtucket Armory and multiple renovations on Brown University’s campus.
PBN: What are you looking forward to in your new position?
REdFERN: I am looking forward to my increased involvement with the management and growth of the firm. I feel privileged to have fallen into a firm that has offered me great opportunity and growth as an individual.
PBN: What is your assessment of the value of LEED standards?
REDFERN: LEED challenges us to look beyond the many portions of our codes which are only setting minimum standards for the communities that we develop, the schools our children learn in, the buildings that we work in and the homes that we live in. … What LEED has allowed us to do is create a productive dialogue between the client and the design team to weigh the benefits versus cost and really understand the impact that our decisions will have on the health of the built and natural environments. LEED standards act as a guideline to help create goals for the project which, in return, creates accountability for both the client and the design team.
PBN: Having worked on high-profile buildings in the area, do you think this type of historic restoration will set the standard in urban centers?
REDFERN: As architects and planners, our firm is always striving to raise the bar with our next project. I learn something new with each project and I personally want to make each project better than the last. We have done more than 15 historic rehabilitation projects just in downtown Providence alone, contributing to the urban fabric of the city. Each of these projects that you have mentioned is very unique and individual and has impacted its portion of the community and urban environment in a valuable way. But I believe that it is not just these individual projects that are setting the standard for projects in our urban centers. Our work is only a small part of what the City of Providence itself has created. It is also the work done by the community and its organizations as well as local developers and city and state officials that have seen the value in the City of Providence. •
