About me...

Daniel Overbey
Director of sustainable design practices
Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf Architects Inc.
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Web sites:

www.bdmd.com

Social media:

Daniel Overbey
danieloverbey
Daniel Overbey

On my hip:

iPhone

Most-used apps:

iBooks
Google
TuneIn Radio
Skype
NPR News
IndyStar
IBJ Mobile

Favorite stuff:

Political science and architecture books; professional journals and websites, including GreenSource, GOOD, Solar Today, Architect, Eco-Structure and Fast Company; comedy movies; TV shows, including "Fringe," "30 Rock," "Survivor" and "Project Runway"

 

The irony of being involved in environmentally friendly design work is not lost on Daniel Overbey. His first job after high school was at a coal-fired power plant in Terre Haute.

“It kind of made an impression on me,” said Overbey, who grew up in Clinton, attended South Vermillion High School and graduated in 2005 from the College of Architecture and Planning at Ball State University.

Overbey brings a rounded research background to his work as an environmental design specialist at Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf Architects. In that role (he is not yet a licensed architect), he examines architectural projects for sustainable and green design standards by using computer simulations of building performance.

“One of the things I do at BDMD today is a lot of energy modeling,” said Overbey, “simulating daylight to figuring out the heat gains and losses through a building envelope, figuring out where the dew point is in a wall system.”

Before joining Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf in 2008, he spent three years in a master’s of architecture program at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. While at UNLV, he also worked as a graduate research assistant at the Natural Energies Advanced Technologies Laboratory. During that time, he completed work on a passive solar energy project begun at Ball State that earned him the Certificate of Merit from the American Institute of Architects’ Henry Adams Fund.

One of Overbey’s recent achievements helped Butler University receive its first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Certification for the expansion of its College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences building, one of the firm’s projects. The project also received a Sustainability Award from the city of Indianapolis.

Overbey and his wife are the parents of a 6-month-old daughter. Between work and professional activities (he is the communications chairman of the Indiana chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council), down time is a luxury.

“There’s a balance you have to strike,” between work and home, he said. When he doesn’t? “My wife lets me know.”•

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