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Specs from the geothermal heat pump installed in the Town Hall last year
Low-VOC paint used for the new high school cafeteria
Bumped into a palette of gypsum wall panels at the community center job site clay plaster used in the
Scuffed on gravel path on the living roof we installed downtown
Mud from the bioswales surrounding the shopping center redevelopment
Soy-based wood stain from interior walls of new restaurant
Snagged on a stack of recycled ceiling joists at the bank renovation
Our local USGBC
Roof support idea for new project
1.5 Million Square Feet Certifies to LEED Every Day* Do you have the tools you need to succeed in a dynamic green building industry? The U.S. Green Building Council has the green building education and resources you need to get the job done – from online anytime courses to LEED reference and study guides.
www.usgbc.org/education *Number based on 2011 average daily LEED certified square footage as reported by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI).
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
In This Issue 12 ◆
A candid conversation with Living Building Challenge founder Jason McLennan
37
Walgreens engineers the country’s first net-zero retail store
41
Andrew Brickman’s vision for Cleveland is as luxurious as it is sustainable
12
50
50 ◆
Five innovative K-12 schools, designed by Brooks + Scarpa, KMD Architects, and more
76 ◆
Houston leverages its strong economy for greener housing and better urban planning
photos: Cameron browne (TOP LEFT), John linden (TOP RIGHT), JACK THOMPSON (CENTER)
88
The Delaware Valley Green Building Council breaks Greenbuild out of the expo
108 ◆ Why Jones Lang LaSalle’s new digs are the smartest offices in Philadelphia
76
138 ◆
The England-born, Los Angeleseducated Rania Alomar is our architect to watch
108 gb&d
138 november–december 2013
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Table of Contents Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List 11
21
33
49
63
75
97
127
137
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
12 14 15 16 18
64 68 70
Jason F. McLennan How to explore space Reclaimed Interface’s Net-Works Defined Design Center for Weather and Climate Prediction Notebook Policy impacts in Phoenix In conversation editor’s picks
76 Houston grows up Once defined by its sprawl and lack of transit, forward-thinking city officials have a new plan for the Texas metropolis 86 Discussion board What is the most effective green-building program you’ve seen? 88 What can we green by greenbuild? With a unique challenge and some clever language, the Delaware Valley Green Building Council unites Philadelphia 92 10 things to see at greenbuild Don’t miss new products and programs from this year’s premier exhibitors
22 23 24
NASA Sustainability Base Bridgestone Technical Center Moorhead Environmental Complex
design
Regis University Fairfax County Wyndham Worldwide
development
26 27
The Drew Company The Hankin Group
Operations
30 MPW Engineering 32 Cyrus One
128 Adaptive Reuse Intergate.Manhattan 132 urban infill The Van Ness 134 analytics Russell Investments Center Green Roof
138 Architect to Watch Rania Alomar 141 Material World Kirei Coco Tiles 142 On the Boards Amazon Biospheres 146 On the Spot Jason F. McLennan
Plus 9 Editor’s note 10 Index 145 ad Index
34 37 40 41 44 46
Advocate Health Care Walgreens Glenn Heinmiller and John Martin Abode Modern Lifestyle Developers Eric Lloyd Wright Hughes Development Corporation
k-12 schools
50 54 56 58 60
Bertschi School The Hotchkiss School The Willow School Green Dot Public Schools The Met High School
gb&d
98 102 106 108 114 117
live
Private Residences at Hotel Georgia Austin Residence The Kensington work
Jones Lang LaSalle Philadelphia Office Santa Monica Animation Studio Dollar General Distribution Center
play
118 M&T Bank Stadium 122 NYC Lifeguard and Comfort Stations 124 Nashville Music City Center
november–december 2013
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
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Corrections: July/August 2013 1. On p. 51, Brandon Dedmon should’ve been listed as an architect with SMS Architects. 2. On p. 112, Julie MacRae’s name was spelled incorrectly. 3. On p. 113, Number TEN Architectural Group should’ve been listed as the Interior Architect. P3A was responsible for furnishings, fittings, and equipment. gb&d regrets these errors.
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Editor’s Note Top Down, Bottom Up
photo: samantha simmons
Throughout history, lasting change has occurred when the grassroots efforts of individuals collide with empathic, forward-thinking leadership. When the men and women on the ground are finally acknowledged by those in the halls of power. The civil rights movement was driven by hundreds of thousands of black citizens, who fought for their rights from the bottom up, staging sit-ins and Freedom Rides. Without them, there would’ve been no catalyst. Institutional change, however, required that policy makers pass new legislation that allowed African Americans equal treatment under the law. (Thinking about the trial of George Zimmerman and the death of Trayvon Martin, it’s obvious that decades later we’re still struggling to ensure all Americans that fair treatment). The point is, the intersection of top-down policy and bottom-up activism can be an exciting place to be. It’s a middle ground of sorts, but not the same as tepid ambivalence. This is the place where things happen. Green building is entering such a place. The industry is maturing, largely because grassroots efforts continue to influence policy makers, who in turn use their powers to push the field forward. This issue features stories about both. In Philadelphia (p. 88), organizers from the Delaware Valley Green Building Council issued a challenge: What can we green before Greenbuild 2013 descends on Philly? Conceptualized by DVGBC deputy executive director Heather Blakeslee, the challenge resulted in hundreds of pledges from local companies, nonprofits, associations, and city agencies. “We the people,” the document began, listing various promises: to invest in green storm-water infrastructure or to reduce waste or to avoid automobile trips. With a deadline of November 20, each group was responsible for making good on its promise. No mandates. This was greening of the people, by the people, and for the people. (The results of the challenge will gb&d
be displayed during Greenbuild at the Independence Visitors Center.) In Houston (p.76), change also is being driven by forward-thinking women—but from within city hall. Current mayor Annise Parker (elections will be held November 5, 2013) and sustainability director Laura Spanjian hope to radically reinvent their sprawling metropolis (Houson is the fourth largest city in the country by population but twice the size of New York geographically) by supporting sustainability initiatives such as the Houston Green Office Challenge and creating a climate that brings companies such as BG Group downtown. The influx of employers has brought a younger, more eco-conscious generation to the city who want new housing types, such as the gorgeous Row on 25th development (p. 80). Soon, Houston may not be recognizable to those of us looking for a spread-out, carbon-spewing monstrosity. This issue is full of people creating positive change. I chat with Jason F. McLennan, founder of the Living Building Challenge (p. 12), our Architect to Watch is RA-DA’s Rania Alomar (p. 138), and after examining five innovative schools (p. 50), we found out that K-12 education’s biggest drivers of change are, it turns out, the kids. Cheers to change,
Timothy A. Schuler Managing Editor tim@gbdmagazine.com ON THE COVER What you’re seeing is the entirety of the more than 120 environmental commitments made by Philadelphia-area companies, businesses, and nonprofits for the Delaware Valley Green Building Council’s 2013 Greenbuild Challenge. Read the story on p. 88.
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Index People & Companies
# A B C
2013 Challenge, 90 27 Coltman, 42 4240 Architecture, 47 Abode DesignBoard, 42 Abode Modern Lifestyle Developers, 41 Advanced Enviro Systems, 94 Advocate Christ Medical Center, 35 Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, 35 Advocate Health Care, 34 Allen, Susan, 27 Alomar, Rania, 138 Amann, William, 24 Amazon, 142 American Hydrotech, 134 American Society of Landscape Architects, 136 Anderson, Ray, 15 Animo Leadership High School, 58 Asociaciﾃｳn Puertorriqueﾃｱos en Marcha, 91 Atrium House, 14 Autodesk, 93 Baltimore Ravens, 119 Barley & Pfeiffer Architects, 104 Barley, Alan, 104 Bertschi School, 51 Better Buildings Challenge, 82 BG Group Place, 82 Biedron, Mark, 56 Big Ass Fans, 93 Big Picture Learning, 60 Blakeslee, Heather, 90 BNIM, 13 Bradley Corporation, 92 Braungart, Michael, 64 Brickman, Andrew, 41 Bridgestone Technical Center, 68 Brooks + Scarpa Architects, 58 Building Bytes, 14 Burney, David, 122 Campana, Frank, 24 Campbell, Justin, 42 Cannon Design, 35 Cascadia Green Building Council, 13 Cendant Corporation, 25 Center for Weather and Climate Prediction, 16 Centerbrook Architects and Planners, 54 CertainTeed, 91 CertusBank, 47 Chemical Heritage Foundation, 94 City of Houston, 76 City of Philadelphia, 91 Clearspan Construction, 42 Clemson University, 47 Clifton Pointe, 43 Coalition for an Energy Efficient Philadelphia, 91 Coco Tiles, 141 Collaborative for High Performance Schools, 60 Commercial Construction Consulting, 27 Cooper Lighting, 38 Cyrus One, 32 D Delaware Valley Green Building Council, 88 Derickson, Pat, 60 Dimit Architects, 42 Dollar General Distribution Center, 117
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DryCool, 30 DVL Automation, 90 E Eagleview Town Center, 28 Eagleview, 27 Eleven River Townhomes, 41 Endall Elliot Associates, 98 EPIC Metals, 93 Eric Lloyd Wright & Associates, 44 Erlab, 68 Excel Dryer, 92 F Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, 23 Farewell Architects, 56 Farewell, Michael, 56 Fidelity Investments, 26 Forbo Flooring Systems, 90 Ford, Matt, 80 Freeland, Olivia, 109 G Garrison Architects, 122 Garrison, James, 122 Gonzaga, Grace, 35 Gordon Estates, 18 Green & Cool, 38 Green Building Resolution, 82 Green Dot Public Schools, 58 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, 88 GreenFumeHood, 68 Guggenheim Museum, 44 Gwynne Pugh Urban Studio, 114 H Health Wellness and Nutrition Building, 56 Heinmiller, Glenn, 40 Heiser, Gregory, 35 Hellstern, Chris, 51 Hillegas, Lance, 27 Hilton Garden Inn, 28 Hines Development, 82 HOK, 16 Houston B-cycle, 80 Houston Drives Electric, 80 Hughes Development Corporation, 47 Hughes, Robert, 47 I IBI/HB Architects, 98 IMT Architecture + Design, 120 In Posse, 109 Interface, 15 Intergate.Manhattan, 128 International Association of Lighting Designers, 40 International Living Future Institute, 13 J JE Dunn Construction, 33 Jonathan Rose Companies, 91 Jones Lang LaSalle, 108 K Kaplan, Shannon, 112 Keating Environmental Management, 94 Kelly, Scott, 109 Kensington Investment Company, 106 Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 79 Kirei, 141 KMD Architects, 51 Knoll, 93 L Lam Partners, 109 Landmark Center, 133 Larsen, Mary, 35 Latchford, Matt, 112
M N
Lavine, Drew, 109 Lehigh Valley Sustainability Network, 91 Leo A. Daly, 117 Liberty Property Trust, 94 Life Edited, 14 Living Building Challenge, 13 Lumark, 38 Lutron Quantum System, 92 Lutron, 109 M&E Engineers, 24 M&T Bank Stadium, 118 M2 Architecture, 72 MagicPlan, 14 MaGrann Associates, 90 Mandalay Communities, 18 Martin, John, 40 Martin, Muscoe, 72 Maryland Stadium Authority, 119 McCurdy, Michael, 110 McDonough, William, 64 McLennan, Jason, 12 Menzin, Abe, 133 Messersmith, 54 Messina, Peter, 35 Meyers, Jamie, 37 Mid-County Human Services Center, 23 Mission First Housing Group, 94 Monona Terrace, 44 Moseley, Don, 31 MPW Engineering, 30 Munge Leung, 98 Munters, 30 NASA Sustainability Base, 64 Nash, Harry, 106 Nashville Music City Center, 124 Nason Construction, 71 Nason, Tom, 71 National Development, 106 NBBJ, 142 Neighborhood Stabilization Program, 18 Net-Works, 15 New York Telephone Company, 129 Next Great City, 91 Node, 14 Noritake Associates, 24 Northwestern Mutual Real Estate Investments, 106 O Oliver Custom Homes, 104 ONE Greenville, 47 P Parker, Annise, 79 Parkhurst, Kevin, 45 Paseo Verde, 91 Pay for Performance, 24 PennFuture, 91 Permaloc, 92 Pfeiffer, Peter, 104 Philadelphia Water Department, 94 Philadelphia Zoo, 91 Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg, 136 Phillips, Chris, 136 Piazza Bergamo, 47 Pickard Chilton, 82 Provenzano, Jeff, 119 R RA-DA, 139 Re:Vision Architecture, 109
S T U V W X Y Z
Redmond, Michael, 22 REFUsol International, 48 Regis University, 22 Rose, Adam, 82 Row on 25th, 80 Russell Investments Center, 134 Russell Investments, 136 Sabey Data Center Properties, 128 Saint-Gobain, 91 Samuels & Associates, 132 Santa Monica Animation Studio, 114 Sasser, John, 129 Seaport Hotel, 26 Seattle Art Museum, 134 Shade House Development, 80 Shaya, Katayoon, 24 Skanska, 51 Smedley, Stacy, 51 Soderstrom Architects, 22 SoL Harris/Day Architecture, 68 Sommerhof, Roy, 119 South Los Angeles Animal Shelter, 140 Spanjian, Laura, 79 Stafford King Wiese Architects, 60 Stanton, Greg, 18 Stroud Water Research Center, 71 Suominen, Hank, 27 Sutter, Matthew, 68 Taconic Investment Partners, 129 Taggart House, 45 Tan, Chun-Fa, 120 The Boston Architectural College, 92 The Drew Company, 26 The Hankin Group, 27 The Hotchkiss School, 54 The Kensington, 106 The Met Sacramento, 60 The Private Residences at Hotel Georgia, 98 The SEED Collaborative, 53 The Van Ness, 132 The Willow School, 56 Timan Window Treatments, 41 Timmons, Kevin, 32 TVS Design, 124 Underwood, Jill, 38 Urban Green Energy, 93 Verizon, 129 Walgreens, 37 Walmart, 30 Waterside Place, 26 Wear, Hannah, 45 Webb, Scott, 30 William McDonough + Partners, 64 Woolf, Alan, 98 Wright Organic Resource Center, 44 Wright, Eric Lloyd, 44 Wright, Frank Lloyd, 44 Wright, Lloyd, 44 Wyndham Worldwide, 24 Xcel Energy, 22 Yanez, Dennis, 134 Yarita-Gallishaw, Yoko, 24 YR&G, 48 Zoological Society of London, 15
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List 12
in conversation
14
editor’s picks
15
reclaimed
16
Defined Design
18
Notebook
gb&d
Jason F. McLennan on injustice (and Twitter) Products and projects that explore space Carpet backing from old fishing nets Center for Weather and Climate Prediction A mayor brings better housing to Phoenix
november–december 2013
11
Jason McLennan is the CEO of the Cascadia Green Building Council and the creator of the Living Building Challenge, arguably the most stringent green-building standard available today. A trained architect, McLennan founded BNIM’s building science team in Kansas City, MO, and is the author of four books.
UP FRONt
In Conversation Jason F. McLennan There is something grandfatherly about Jason McLennan (and not just because he calls Twitter “a complete waste of time”). He speaks slowly, with a certain amount of gravel in his voice, and displays an acumen that seemingly only age can bring. Although he is hardly green building’s patriarch, McLennan is a veteran of the industry. He served as a principal at BNIM before launching the Living Building Challenge in 2006 to provide the industry with a building rating system more ambitious than any other on the market. Today, McLennan spends the majority of his time at the International Living Future Institute, the umbrella nonprofit that administers the Challenge and oversees the Cascadia Green Building Council (covering Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska). In our conversation, which appears throughout the pages of this magazine, we discuss McLennan’s latest ventures and the injustices the industry continues to ignore. gb&d —Timothy A. Schuler, Managing Editor
gb&d: I like to start by asking people what their earliest memory is of nature, where nature became something more than just, “This is a mountain,” or “This is a tree.” Jason McLennan: My earliest memory of nature was when I accidentally dumped a bird’s nest on my head when I was four. The eggs splattered and ran down my hair and face (laughs). gb&d: That’s kind of a dark memory. McLennan: Well, it was. It was very upsetting. At the same time it stuck with me, let’s put it that way. It made me think, even at that age, of the impact we can have if we’re not careful. Because I was climbing the tree to admire the bird’s nest, and instead I destroyed it by accident.
photos: Paul Dunn (portrait), Matthew Millman
gb&d: Growing up in Ontario and living in Oregon and Kansas, what sort of stamp did those places put on you?
ABOVE Designed by Flansburgh Architects and located in Kamuela, Hawaii, the Hawaii Preparatory Academy Energy Laboratory was certified in 2011 under Living Building Challenge version 1.3. It is currently one of only four projects in the world certified as a Living Building.
Check out an othe Living r Buildin g on p. 5 0
McLennan: I actually lived in Missouri—that side of Kansas City—though of course I spent time in Kansas too. I grew up in northern Canada, in a mining town that is one of the most polluted places on the planet. And I always wondered when I traveled outside of my hometown to very pristine wildernesses and beautiful places why our town was so degraded. gb&d: Was there still mining going on? McLennan: Oh yeah. It’s still mining today. It’s the largest nickel mine in the world, in Sudbury. It really shaped my understanding of things. In the ’70s, there was the launch of a giant “re-greening” campaign, to heal the landscape, and I participated in that. That was transformative as well because I saw how we could heal the places we had destroyed with the right intention and community participation.
The conversation continues on p. 15
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UP FRONt
Editor’s Picks Space Explorers
▲ magicplan Need a floor plan fast? MagicPlan, from Sensopia, is a brilliant app, available for free for iPad, iPhone, or Android, that makes it easy to create a floor plan of any space. Snap a few photos, add in the furniture, piece the rooms togther, and you’ve got a working floor plan without the time or expense of a blueprint. sensopia.com
▼ Atrium house With city requirements for rear yards, homes with courtyards are rare in New York, but this home was exempt due to its previous life as a garage. MESH Architectures extracted an interior volume and stacked it on top of the building to create a spacious, window-filled great room. mesh-arc.com
▲ LIFE EDITED It’s either a design consultancy specializing in downsizing or a downsizing consultancy specializing in design. Either way, TreeHugger founder Graham Hill fit 1,000 square feet of space into 420 and wants to help architects and developers do the same. lifeedited.com
▲ node
PHOTO: MATTHEW Williams (Life Edited)
The best ideas seem like no-brainers. Node, which is Cradle to Cradle certified, falls into that category. How it took until 2013 for someone to design a school desk that is easily reconfigured for lectures, small groups, or full class discussion is a mystery. steelcase.com
building bytes Space is malleable with these 3-D printed bricks, designed by Brian Peters of Design Lab Workshop. Representing a new way to create an age-old building material, Building Bytes are most importantly customizable and can be engineered for any project. buildingbytes.info
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UP FRONt
Reclaimed Net Worth
JASON F. MCLENNAN Continued from p. 13
gb&d: Your transition from working as an architect, project to project, into organizing people, activism, getting involved in policy and some of these larger changes that the Living Building Challenge is trying to affect— what’s that been like? McLennan: Very rewarding. For ten years, I worked on many of the greenest projects in the United States and learned a lot about how to do this stuff, before very many others had learned how to do it. And yet, I felt I had a bigger obligation to disseminate that information and help my competitors and my colleagues and other firms move forward, instead of continuing to work one building at a time. gb&d: What skills have you learned from this part of the journey versus the skills you learned in architecture school? McLennan: Well, I think it’s a lot of the same skills that I learned in school and then refined in professional practice and just brought to bear on a different set of problems. At the Living Future Institute, we are creating constructs or visions to help people imagine a different and more beneficial future than the one that we’re currently on the path towards. It requires looking for patterns in the field of human activity. It requires looking at trends and observing the zeitgeist of the moment and memes that are floating out from the universe and economic trends and all sorts of things. And then trying to find the right tools, policies, programs, articles to [propose] that will provide the greatest leverage for change. That’s not necessarily unlike what you’re doing when you’re doing good journalism, if you’re thinking, “What is the story I need to tell? Who do I need to talk to? What are the ideas for the time that will make this relevant and timely and will make a difference?” It’s similar in that way.
Nearly 300 families are collecting approximately 20 metric tons of discarded netting in the Phillipines to be spun into commercial carpet.
Interface’s latest worldsaving idea is spinning spent fishing nets, a hazard for marine life, into carpets The late Ray Anderson has been an environmental hero since he made his company, Interface, the global commercial carpet-maker, one of the greenest companies in the world and subsequently inspired a new era of corporate social responsibility. Now Interface has partnered with the Zoological Society of London to create Net-Works, a program that reclaims the spent fishing nets that pollute beaches and harm marine life. Targeting the Danajon Bank region gb&d
of the Philippines in its first phase, the nets are collected by members of the local fishing community then sent to the United States to be spun into yarn. In many parts of the world, the nylon used in fishing nets is the same material used in commercial carpets, making this a prime opportunity for Interface and struggling local economies. The pilot project is focusing on 15 villages, but plans are in the works for Net-Works to expand to other parts of the world. gb&d
gb&d: I think you’re right. And it can be an overwhelming task. At the same time, I think there are opportunities every single day, so it never feels like the one decision you’re making is the decision. McLennan: Well, you can’t fully predict the right one anyway, so there’s no sense getting hung up about it.
The conversation continues on p. 19
november–december 2013
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UP FRONt
Defined Design Center for Weather and Climate Prediction
By Lynn Russo Whylly
con·gre·gate / kŏng’grĭ-gāt / (verb) To come together; assemble, especially in large numbers. All three wings of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Center for Weather and Climate Prediction culminate at the atrium, which serves as a central space to congregate for meetings or informal conversations. The main staircases and amenities, such as the cafeteria and 500-seat auditorium, were intentionally designed as offshoots from the atrium to bring people together.
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dy·nam·ic / dī-‘na-mik / (adjective) Marked by usually continuous and productive activity or change. The sustainable features of the building, where 800 meteorologists, researchers, and other employees work 24/7 to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, were incorporated to show the changing weather and seasons, creating a dynamic environment to which researchers can feel connected. The features include a five-story waterfall that flows when it rains, a kinetic sculpture against the parking garage that moves with the wind, and vegetative roofs that change with the seasons.
o·pen / ‘ō-pən / (adjective) Relatively free of obstructions to sight, movement, or internal arrangement. Seventy percent of the interior is open to receive natural light. Northern woodland preserves lessen the structure’s sense of containment by offering views from the northern wing of the building. The north elevation’s wall of windows looks out onto a preserve, and the south elevation curtainwall, which acts as a sunscreen to reduce solar heat gain, also uses light shelves to bounce daylight into the interior.
gbdmagazine.com
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The NOAA building appears to rise as a natural landform from its surroundings. The plantscaping, which consists of species native or adaptive to Maryland, includes naturalistic plantings of grasses, perennials, shrubs, and ferns.
Details Location Riverdale Park, MD Size 285,000 ft2 Completed 2012 Cost $97 million Certification LEED Gold Architect/Landscape Architect HOK Owner Acquest Development Contracting Agency U.S. General Services Administration Mechanical Engineer R.G. Vanderweil Engineers Structural Engineer Opus Architects & Engineers Civil Engineer A. Morton Thomas and Associates Lighting Design MCLA
gb&d
ABOVE The concrete pavers in the circular drop-off area and the walkway leading up to the facility’s entrance add to the fluid motion of the compound and naturally ease into the flora and fauna. LEFT Bioswales collect rainwater and runoff feeds the on-site irrigation system. Inside, a building automation system optimizes lighting through photoelectric dimming controls, occupancy sensors, and sunshading devices.
november–december 2013
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UP FRONt
Notebook Phoenix Rising By Alan Oakes
Like most of the nation after the 2008 recession, Phoenix was awash in home foreclosures and high unemployment. Unlike other cities, however, Phoenix approached its foreclosure crisis with sustainability in mind, not only attempting to rewrite faulty loans but also using federal and local funds to renovate foreclosed homes throughout blighted neighborhoods. The city set more stringent, environmentally friendly building codes and then resold the homes to the communities. Greg Stanton, Phoenix’s mayor since 2011, has led the march for a revitalized city. With a firm vision of a modern, efficient metropolis, he has championed a number of sustainable projects, one being Gordon Estates. Built on land from a failed development, Gordon Estates is a modest mini-burb of 14 stucco-walled
When the housing bubble collapsed in 2008, the area known as South Mountain Village, where Gordon Estates is located, experienced depression-level devastation. More than 6,000 homes were foreclosed on in this area just south of downtown. In a matter of months, Phoenix lost almost 150,000 private sector jobs, and 8.4 percent of its workforce evaporated like the morning dew on a desert yucca leaf. In South Mountain, the unemployment rate shot up more than 10 percent. As the recession unfolded, community leaders in Phoenix knew they had to work fast or the city’s neighborhoods would decline even further. Using $115.5 million of federal stimulus money, the city formed the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). The NSP started working to counteract the negative
“Incentives are not a bad word to me. In my city, if there are companies that are bringing green jobs or helping us to fulfill our sustainability goals, you’re going to find an open door to my office.”
effects of foreclosures by readying the homes for Phoenix residents. In the process, the NSP turned to sustainable design practices to achieve a number of goals: renewing neighborhoods, making old homes more efficient while reducing pollution, creating new jobs, and keeping costs low for the incoming residents. The resulting Gordon Estates is the only green subdivision in the United States that meets and exceeds the National Green Building Standard Gold, Energy Star v3, EPA WaterSense, and Indoor airPLUS certifications. Phoenix, Stanton believes, needs to become a Silicon Valley of sustainable design by encouraging projects like Gordon Estates, and he says economic development and sustainable design go hand-in-hand. Gordon Estates was born when the NSP acquired a defaulted and partially developed subdivision on Apollo Street in the South Mountain community. The city chose the project for its proximity to employment and major transportation and to build upon NSP synergy and neighborhood impact already occurring
Greg Stanton, City of Phoenix ranch homes. It was designed and built using a unique public-private partnership that is seeking to revitalize Phoenix through innovative green design. This small cluster of homes has achieved the highest green building certifications of any subdivision in the nation, and Gordon Estates has become a symbol of the fighting spirit of Phoenix, using sustainable design to rise from the ashes of the national economic downturn. “The Gordon Estates project is a great example of a sustainability approach having a meaningful and lasting positive impact on homeowners,” Stanton says.
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JASON F. MCLENNAN Continued from p. 15 Is two months too long? Like gb&d on Facebook for updates. gb&d: In our questionnaire (p. 146), we asked you who to follow on Twitter. Your response was, “I hate Twitter.” McLennan: (Laughs) That is true.
in the South Mountain area, but the project wouldn’t have been possible without public incentives. “Incentives are not a bad word to me,” Stanton says. “In my city, if I can help build density in my downtown, if there’s companies that are bringing green jobs or helping us to fulfill our sustainability goals, you’re going to find an open door to my office in city hall to get the job done.” Phoenix’s NSP and its developer partner, Mandalay Communities, incorporated the highest level of new construction and green building standards in the Gordon Estates’ homes by considering site design, preparation and development, energy efficiency, water conservation,
and indoor environmental quality for healthy living. To help bring peak utility costs below $70 a month, homes use a six-panel solar energy system, 14 SEER HVAC, 5.5-inch dense spray foam insulation in the roof, 3.5-inch foam insulation in the walls, and a photovoltaic solar hotwater system. “By taking a more sustainability-minded approach, we are helping to reduce a family’s energy and water use,” Stanton says. “In addition to keeping money in the pockets of families, we’re also lessening our environmental impact. Doing well and doing good at the same time is a winning combination.” Phoenix has endured a great deal of hardship since the 2008 recession. But sustainable projects like Gordon Estates are offering a new vision of a city that embodies its name. gb&d Alan Oakes is an architectural historian, writer, documentarian, and regular contributor to gb&d. Drop him a line at alanoakes@gbdmagazine.com.
Emerging from the ashes of a recession, projects like Gordon Estates prove Phoenix is serious about sustainable design.
gb&d: Among my friends, I’m somewhat of a Luddite and a curmudgeon when it comes to new technologies. Do you tend to romanticize a time when we had fewer technological gadgets, or do you really love some gadgets, just not Twitter? I’m curious. McLennan: I like things that make sense. And that enrich our experience and lead us to a better future. I think the Amish got it right by asking this question, “What’s the impact that technology has on our culture?” Now [you or I] might not agree with their particular decisions, but modern society doesn’t provide a lot of scrutiny for anything; we just accept technology as a given and as progress. “Well, it’s new so therefore it must be good and we must use it.” That’s bullshit. Any time we have technologies that keep us connected 24/7 and we don’t stop and say, “Is this biologically and psychologically good for us?” we’re entering at least a hazy zone, maybe a dangerous zone relative to our well-being. gb&d: A big difference, or at least one difference, between LEED and the Living Building Challenge is the Equity petal. LEED and other [rating systems] do sort of address the topic peripherally, sort of indirectly, but it’s put on equal importance in the Challenge. I’m curious why issues of social justice are important to you personally, and then I want to talk about how they interconnect with what people normally think of as sustainability. McLennan: Well, we just announced a new program called JUST. It’s sort of a nutrition label for social justice. It basically is a transparency program to allow organizations to very clearly articulate how they treat their people and how they treat their community with their policies. So your organization could get a JUST label, for example, and I’d challenge you to do that once we launch it, which is soon. (JUST was launched at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York in October.)
The conversation continues on p. 20
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november–december 2013
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UP FRONt
JASON F. MCLENNAN Continued from p. 19
Online Exclusives
gb&d: Can you give me a tangible example of how the Equity petal translates into a project, like the Bertschi School (p. 50)? McLennan: The first four projects were built under the first version of the program, which didn’t have an Equity petal. We added that under 2.0. That said, there are definitely elements of social justice embedded in the Challenge even in version 1.0, in terms of the health and well-being of the communities and people around where materials are made that go into buildings. [People think] the purpose of the “red list” is the health and well-being of the occupants of the building. That’s only a fraction of it. In many cases, the building materials that we are trying to change are fairly benign once they’re in the building. The real negative impacts are the poor people that live around the factories where these products are being made. That’s just one example. gb&d: It’s a really good one. It’s one I don’t hear talked about very often. McLennan: None of this stuff is! gb&d: (Laughs) McLennan: That’s the whole point. Equity is usually given a two-minute, or a thirty-second Twitter-sized sound bite at a green conference where someone says, “Oh yes, we have to do something about equity because we don’t really address it in green building. But meanwhile, let’s move on to energy.” gb&d: Do you think it partially stems from the fact that these sorts of issues are trickier? That they’re more confrontational?
The issue doesn’t stop here. For exclusive content, visit us online: gbdmagazine.com, facebook.com/gbdmagazine, twitter.com/gbdmagazine. ▲ Greenbuild 2013 Recap If you’re anticipating postGreenbuild separation anxiety, we’ll have highlights from the conference so you can relive the expo online (or experience it for the first time).
Discussion Board Industry professionals have a lot of opinions about what is actually the best green-building challenge—we got so many responses that they couldn’t all fit in the magazine. Go online or download the iPad edition to see all the contributors, including John Martin of IALD (pictured).
▼ Jon Powers Serving as the Obama administration’s federal environmental executive, Jon Powers is the nation’s chief promoter of green initiatives. Read our exclusive Q&A about what the feds are doing to green the government.
McLennan: Issues like this are really tough for a lot of people. It makes people uncomfortable. And most people are conflict-averse. We’re very worried either about being politically correct, or looking backwards—
photo: joshua albanese (john marTin)
gb&d: Or looking inside of ourselves too deeply. McLennan: Yeah, exactly. And [realizing] oh, maybe I am bigoted. Or maybe I am biased. So it’s scary. It takes a certain amount of craziness or stupidity or bravery—or some combination—to tackle these issues.
The conversation continues on p. 141
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List Design
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Regis University
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Fairfax County
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Wyndham Worldwide
Development
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The Drew Company
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The Hankin Group
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Unveiling the ultra-efficient Clarke Hall Evidence-based design meets human services A corporate headquarters reflects culture
‘Innovative’ living at Waterside Place Greening a Pennsylvania burg Operations
MPW Engineering
Walmart tests new tech in Chicago cyrus one Modular data centers that fit clients’ needs
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Approach DESIGN
The new Clarke Hall uses night flushing and window sensors for ultra-efficiency Energy modeling cuts operational costs in half “Sustainability is the critical part of the Jesuit Catholic mission,” says Michael Redmond, the associate vice president of physical plant and capital projects at Regis University, which in December 2012 completed construction on Clarke Hall, one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the Rocky Mountain Region. “We want to be leaders in our region for others to follow. Incoming students are keenly aware of what we do in the sustainable area—it is part of our recruitment process.” Clarke Hall was designed to house the College of Professional Studies, the university brand marketing offices, a university-wide learning commons, distance learning design, and state-of-the art meeting and seminar rooms for the Denver university. The cradle-to-grave, 82,000-square-foot, four-story project started with design in fall 2010 and was dedicated in January, and it’s currently
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in its warranty period. Although the school chose not seek LEED certification, LEED criteria and strategies were used as guidelines to make the building more energy efficient. Regis hired Soderstrom Architects of Portland, Oregon, to design the building because of the firm’s known sustainability-focused approach and because of Regis’ history with the architects— Clarke Hall is illuminated by early morning sun. the architecture firm has designed Built by Golden Triangle Construction, six other projects for the university. Regis University’s new academic building “Their fast-track, cradle-to-grave in Denver should save $56,000 per year thanks process for design is phenomenal,” to energy modeling alone. Redmond says. “Our buildings are a mix of gothic and other types of construction. The whole campus aesthetically matches—[Soderstrom] was excellent at that.” Some of Clarke Hall’s green features include an evaporative cooling system, daylight harvesting, night-flush mechanical cooling, sustainable carpet tile flooring, touchless
gbdmagazine.com
PHOTOS: JACKIE SHUMAKER
Regis University Unveils High-Tech Academic Building
restrooms, radiant floor-heating, solarheated domestic water system, window sensors, a 75-year concrete tile roof, and low-E insulated windows. One of the biggest energy savers for the building is the window-sensor control system. The localized HVAC dampers are automatically shut off in the areas where windows are opened, but the system continues to cool other areas of the building. This saves energy and dollars and reduces wasteful air-conditioning throughout the building. Night-flush mechanical cooling is used between June and September when temperatures are at their optimal levels in the Denver climate. The process takes the building down to a core temperature between 50 and 55 degrees, and then it brings in all fresh air. “During the daytime when you cycle air, 50 to 60 percent of the air is recirculated in the building,” Redmond says. “At night, it is completely flushed out. We have a computerized energy management system that reestablishes the temperatures of the building in the morning before the first classrooms and offices are used. It enhances the building’s performance. People talk about stale air, and this is what night flushing is all about.” Cutting back on electrical needs was a crucial component of the energy modeling done by Xcel Energy, and Regis used LED lighting and enhanced lighting systems to keep energy use low. “[The energy model] required us to have certain points to save money when it came to the performance of the building,” Redmond says. “The square footage versus the cost of our utilities in the building was $111,000 dollars per year. When we energy modeled it, we were able to get the cost down to $55,000
APPROACH
SODERSTROM ARCHITECTS Architecture | Planning | Restoration | Interior Design
“Incoming students are keenly aware of what we do in the sustainable area—it is part of our recruitment process.” Michael Redmond, Regis University
a year. The benefit of our sustainable design and life-cycle payback was critical in the electrical areas.” Hard costs for the project were $14.6 million at $197 per square foot. After added amenities, equipment, furnishings, and electronics after construction, the cost totaled $18.4 million. gb&d —Jennifer Nunez
75 56k
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Full-service, planning and design firm. Industry leader in sustainable design. 30 years in business. Client-focused, innovative design solutions. Serving a diverse client base throughout the U.S. & internationally.
Years Clarke Hall’s concrete tile roof is expected to last
Dollar amount saved with energy modeling by Xcel Energy
A Message from Golden Triangle Construction
Golden Triangle Construction is a Colorado-based full-service general contractor dedicated to unfailing quality, service, and environmental responsibility. GTC was pleased to partner with Regis University on the new Clarke Hall, and we look forward to continuing our strong working relationship in successful construction at their Denver campus. gtc1.net; regis.edu.
w w w. s d r a . c o m | 5 0 3 - 2 2 8 - 5 6 1 7 1200 NW Naito Parkway, Suite 410 Portland, Oregon 97209
GREEN
Human-services building benefits people, planet Healthful materials and efficient systems support the ambitions of evidence-based design in Fairfax County’s new Human Services Center When the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES) adopted the Fairfax County Sustainable Design Policy in 2008 to formalize its commitment to sustainable development, it set the stage for the county’s $48.5 million Mid-County Human Services Center, one of seven LEEDtargeting projects under construction. Expected to be complete in fall 2014, the facility is pursuing LEED Silver certification, which will add to the county’s 15 additional buildings that have already received certifications from the USGBC. The building replaces an old health center and consolidates behavioral and gb&d
Providing high-performance sustainable construction since 1977
65%
Reduction in parking garage energy costs for Fairfax County facility via lighting controls
North/Contact Office 700 Weaver Park Road Longmont, CO 80501 (303) 772-4051
Visit us online at www.gtc1.net
Southern Office 4815 List Drive, Ste. 107 Colo. Springs, CO 80919 (719) 314-0531
GTC is a proud member of USGBC
november–december 2013
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The new Mid County Human Services Center will have native and indigenous plants in its landscaping and bioswales on-site to manage excess storm water.
alcohol and drug service programs under one roof. “The centrally located facility will offer community-based services and supports to prevent crises and help people with behavioral health challenges integrate successfully into the community,” says Katayoon Shaya, project coordinator of building design and construction for Fairfax County DPWES. “The building itself is designed to integrate successfully and beautifully with its physical surroundings.” Although the design was first and foremost consumer-focused, Fairfax County’s use of evidence-based design strategies fit hand-in-hand with sustainable design practices. “From the onset of planning and design, the team has placed a very high priority and focus on the green features across the design, construction, operations, and maintenance of the facility,” Shaya says. Both structures—a five-story, 200,000-square-foot building and a four-story, 230,000-square-foot parking garage—were designed with long-span, post-tensioned, cast-in-place-concrete structural frames. The building’s skin is a glazed curtainwall with ribbon windows that have insulated and low-E coated glazing units, and it has an aluminum panel system along with the architectural precast concrete panels. “The base of the building is wrapped in natural and regionally quarried granite, which also continues into the main lobby,” says Yoko Yarita-Gallishaw, project manager with Noritake Associates, the architect for the project, “to visually anchor the building in its surrounding site design, providing a visual and material continuum from the hardscape to the building and from the outside in.” The central plant HVAC system uses chilled and hot water, reducing the building’s overall dependence on compressors with refrigerant circuits. The facility’s lighting control system uses photocell sensors to minimize the electrical lighting levels during the day, and occupancy sensors with dimmers
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were installed. The majority of the offices and meeting spaces have energy-efficient T5 fluorescent lamps, and decorative lighting in the waiting areas and lobbies contain color-changing LEDs to simulate seasonal colors, which studies have shown can lift patients’ moods. The 712-space parking structure is exclusively lit with LED fixtures and uses a lighting control system that provides a 65 percent reduction in energy costs compared to other lighting systems. When it rains, storm water is collected and taken to a regional storm-water management pond directly adjacent to the project site. Shaya says that the rain gardens were placed to collect runoff across from two of the three main entrances, making them an educational feature as well as a sustainable one. gb&d —Jennifer Hogeland A Message from Noritake Associates
Since 1986, Noritake Associates has been assisting private, corporate, institutional, and government clients with creative business solutions. We are proud to be Fairfax County’s partner in its consolidation of their Behavioral Health Community Services, one of the largest of its kind with thirteen programs exceeding 160,000 square feet under one (sustainable) roof.
Wyndham HQ reflects company culture Hotel group’s high-performance Parsippany headquarters shows sustainability is at the center of its business “Green” is integral to company branding in almost every industry, typically seen in how products are made and how they perform. But in people-focused industries such as hotels, sustainability starts at the top. Visit the new headquarters of Wyndham Worldwide in Parsippany, New Jersey, and you’ll see how that happens.
The headquarters comprises two adjoining structures: one LEED Silvercertified building completed in 2006 and currently in the process of obtaining an Existing Buildings certification, and a second aiming for LEED Gold when occupied by the end of this year. The whole complex actually hosts green tours for franchisees and outside groups, and with the natural lighting in the offices, window orientation reducing summer heat load, bike parking and showers, carpool and hybrid-prioritized parking, and an on-site eco-car wash, the green features are readily apparent to visitors of the three-story, glass and granite buildings. The complex has a white-membrane roof and a building parking-lot configuration that spares a neighboring residential area from light pollution. Deep within the office campus is LED lighting, mechanical systems that use variable-frequency drive technology, and a tight building envelope that reduces energy costs. But visit on an exceptionally hot summer day, and the building systems will allocate electricity more efficiently through a demand-response program. “We have a sophisticated building management system that reduces electrical loads on demand, which includes light reduction in some corridors, cutting five elevators down to three, and modified HVAC set points,” says Frank Campana, Wyndham’s senior vice president of corporate real estate and facilities. He adds that many employees use the stairs instead as part of an employee wellness program. Wyndham joins other companies in the area to avert regional power brownouts and earn a price cut from the utility. M&E Engineers, who did the energy modeling for the building, says that all of these energy-efficient measures will bring a real return on investment because of a special program. “For [this] project, the energy savings would yield an initial rate of return of 11 percent by themselves,” says William Amann, president of M&E. “However, we enrolled the project in the Pay for Performance program with the New Jersey office of clean energy, and the rebates will potentially improve the IRR to 21.4 percent.”
PHOTO: Woodruff & Brown (property of HLW)
APPROACH DESIGN
APPROACH
Wyndham also participates in other New Jersey environmental programs, purchasing carbon offsets and energyefficient materials that are part of why it was named first in the hotels category of Newsweek magazine’s Green Rankings in 2011 and 2012. Wyndham has approximately 631,800 hotel rooms in 66 countries under 15 hotel brands including Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Ramada, Days Inn, and Super 8, among others. The greening of Wyndham benefits from rebate and cost-reduction programs from the state and utility companies, but it began with a company reset in 2006, when former parent Cendant Corporation spun-off the hotel business as an independent, publicly traded company. “That’s when we studied employee opinions and found that sustainability was important to them,” Campana says. “They are very cognizant of how this affects the outside environment as well as the workplace itself.” Employees actively recycle, carpool, and use a companyprovided shuttle system to and from the commuter rail station. Wyndham as a company is growing, so it built to accommodate a slightly larger future workforce. But it also is looking at alternative work strategies that might mean telecommuting for some employees, reducing the need for corporate office space. “We consider everything where it comes to employee productivity and energy efficiency,” Campana says. “It’s about doing the right thing for the right reasons. When we break it down, it ultimately always makes financial sense.” gb&d —Russ Klettke
21%
INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE & WORKPLACE DESIGN | HEALTHCARE & MEDICAL OFFICE
Projected internal rate of return thanks to special New Jersey rebate programs
HEADQUARTERS & BUILD-TO-SUIT | URBAN & SUBURBAN OFFICE | MASTER PLANNING
605 Prince Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 703.739.9366 www.noritakeassociates.com
BELOW The new, 250,000-square-foot headquarters for Wyndham Worldwide in New Jersey is expecting LEED Gold certification because of features such as its green roof and a high-performance building-management system.
Award Winning Mechanical & Electrical Engineers
HVAC | LIGHTING & POWER | ENERGY AUDITS ENERGY MODELING | COMMISSIONING LEED CERTIFICATION | RENEWABLE ENERGY
www.MEengineers.com | 908.526.5700 november–december 2013
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Approach DEVELOPMENT Waterside Place’s third floor amenity deck will include two large outdoor grills and have expansive views of Boston Harbor and downtown.
Waterside Place Bolsters Boston’s ‘Innovation District’ The Drew Company maintains its progressive presence in the former industrial area Newest development will offer residential units, retail space, and ‘innovation space’ Boston-based real estate developer The Drew Company has a long history of incorporating sustainability into its diverse portfolio. But in the past five years, the company has made an even bigger push to require LEED certification on all its projects. Drew Company’s tagline is “vision, quality, and results,” and the new Waterside Place, a 350,000-square-foot, mixed-use project in Boston’s booming Innovation District, exemplifies many of the firm’s best practices. The Innovation District is known for its recent influx of young, creative profes-
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sionals running small startups, and it’s often described as a newly burgeoning area, but the Drew Company recognized the area’s potential before it became Boston’s next “it” neighborhood. Sometimes referred to as the Seaport District, it was an industrial area comprising little more than a series of mostly unused parking lots. When a highway interchange was constructed in the 1990s, it put the Seaport District in close proximity to downtown and enabled drivers to avoid the downtown traffic. Allen says this is one of the major factors that put the
area on the map, and it became a selling point for the Drew Company when it began to market the Seaport Hotel, a joint venture between the firm and Fidelity Investments, as one of the first new buildings to be erected in the area. In March 2003, when the Drew Company won a competition for the development of Waterside Place, the project was envisioned as a large, 1.2 million-squarefoot, mixed-use project encompassing a hotel, residential condominiums, an urban retail mall, and more than 2,000 parking spaces. The initial project was located on an eight-acre site and had a $700 million budget. In response to the economic recession, the Drew Company decided to make major revisions to its original plan. Waterside Place was adjusted to have 236 residential rental units, 10,000 square feet of retail space, and 6,500 square feet gbdmagazine.com
APPROACH
“We’re very excited by what’s happening in the area, and we feel like the timing for the Waterside Place project is right for this part of the city.” Susan Allen, The Drew Company
of “innovation space.” “We ran into the same problems that many firms experienced during this time,” says Susan Allen, the Drew Company’s executive vice president. “Plans had to be revised and then revised again—and then for a while, construction ceased. We stepped back and replanned the entire project, developing it for the newly defined market. We’re very excited by what’s happening in the area, and we feel like the timing for the Waterside Place project is right for this part of the city.” Moving forward with a budget of approximately $120 million and downsizing to two acres, Waterside Place broke ground in mid-2012 with planned final completion set for April 2014. The building’s first units will begin leasing in January 2014 and despite having to scale back considerably, Waterside Place will exemplify the latest in luxury residential living while also featuring the best of what sustainable design has to offer. Hank Suominen, a senior project manager at Commercial Construction Consulting, is the project manager for design and construction for Waterside Place and says that green building is about more than efficiency—it’s also about human health. “Everything about this project, from design to construction, lends itself to health and wellness,” he says. Suominen is particularly proud of the owner’s decision to proceed with a no-smoking policy, which goes well beyond prohibiting tenants from smoking in the building. From the earliest stages of building, construction workers
6,500
Square footage of ‘innovation space’ in Waterside Place, enabling residents with start-ups to live and work in the same building
gb&d
weren’t allowed to smoke on-site or near the building materials. “If you look at aerial photographs of the area from 20 years ago, it was industrialized blight,” Suominen says. “What it’s becoming is amazing. It’s in proximity to public transportation. It’s a great urban environment for city dwellers who want to lower their carbon footprint and who don’t have the throw-away mind-set we’ve become accustomed to. The project will have the usual green features, like Energy Star appliances, low-VOC paints, and sustainable building materials such as concrete and structural steel, but we’re also pushing for more. There will be charging stations, and we’ll offer parking location preference for fuel-efficient vehicles. We want to take green in a different, more comprehensive direction.” gb&d —Tina Vasquez A Message from TRO JB
TRO JB is a 100-year-old international firm composed of 160 integrated architects, interior designers, engineers, and planners with deep expertise in solving complex issues in the design, rehabilitation, and infrastructure of a variety of building types ranging from small projects to large campuses.
Residents of Waterside Place can choose their low-VOC color for an accent wall in their units, which will feature locally sourced and recycled materials and water- and energy-efficient appliances and fixtures.
Pennsylvania town gets LEED treatment The Hankin Group grows the Eagleview township to its own sustainable specifications Eagleview, roughly 35 miles west of Philadelphia on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, was initially conceived as a suburban corporate park in the 1980s. Being one turnpike exit west of the nearby Philadelphia suburb, King of Prussia, Eagleview’s location had great potential for development. As Eagleview evolved from its original form as a corporate center, it was planned as a complete community with a variety of residential, recreational, retail, and civic uses alongside its commercial development, and all these components were unified by a town square. “Eagleview has evolved in that the land was acquired, planned, and developed in several phases,” says Lance Hillegas, vice president of design and sustainable development at The Hankin Group, the site’s developer. “We first developed a corporate park, and then added residential land with a town center concept linking the two.” The Hankin Group began using the concepts of traditional neighborhood development for the growing residential communities in Eagleview. Smaller lots and townhomes with sidewalks, front porches, alleys, recreational parks and walking trails provided opportunity to increase walkability and rely less on cars. Eagleview, with its various acquisitions, had reached a size of more than 800 acres, allowing for planning concepts on a larger scale.
“It has always been a focus of the company to do the right things for energy conservation and sustainability.” Lance Hillegas, The Hankin Group november–december 2013
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APPROACH DEVELOPMENT
This building, in Eagleview, PA, has a 113-kilowatt PV array on its roof.
WE BEGIN WITH GROUNDBREAKING IDEAS BEFORE WE EVEN BREAK GROUND. We’re all about a new brand of thinking. Fearless innovation and proactive problem solving. About using state-of-the-art and proprietary digital tools to plan, collaborate and deliver big wins for our clients. We’re Suffolk. We build smart.
Waterside Place
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ABOVE 707 Eagleview Boulevard is pursuing LEED-EB certification. The four-story office building has already received an Energy Star label.
Sustainability and environmental impact are key components to the Hankin Group’s philosophy. The commercial side of Eagleview showcases various LEED-certified projects including 505 Eagleview Boulevard, a 152,000-square-foot LEED Gold office structure that was completed in 2008 and awarded an Energy Star label in 2012, and 707 Eagleview Boulevard received an Energy Star label in 2012. In the Eagleview Town Center, the Bernard Hankin Building, a low-income age-restricted senior apartment building, was finished in 2012 and achieved LEED for Homes Platinum certification. The town center will have more than 400 condominium and apartment residences, a YMCA, and a number of businesses and restaurants when completed. Right now, the Hankin Group is building a Hilton Garden Inn and a new 72-unit luxury apartment building, which are both pursuing LEED certification. To complement the Hankin Group’s sustainability efforts and LEED certifications, the company is implementing various solar projects. 505 Eagleview Boulevard, the Bernard Hankin Building, and 707 Eagleview Boulevard all feature gbdmagazine.com
PHOTOS: BARRY HALKIN
www.suffolkconstruction.com
APPROACH
rooftop photovoltaic arrays. The firm also has two rooftop solar installations outside Eagleview and a ground-mounted, two-megawatt array in nearby commercial development in Morgantown. The Hankin Group’s other ongoing sustainability efforts include comprehensive lighting and mechanical systems upgrades, drought-resistant landscaping, porous paving, building with recyclable materials, construction recycling, and much more. The firm aims to expand its longtime commitment to sustainability in Eagleview and beyond. “It has always been a focus of the company to do the right things for energy conservation and sustainability,” Hillegas says. gb&d —Mary J. Levine
505 EAGLEVIEW BLVD GOLD LEED® CERTIFIED
BELOW The LEED for Homes Platinum Bernard Hankin Building is a lowincome residential building with geothermal heating and cooling and a rooftop PV array. BOTTOM 505 Eagleview Boulevard has a water-source heat-pump HVAC system, contributing to its LEED Gold for Core & Shell certification.
GREEN IS ALWAYS IN STYLE. The Hankin Group has applied its expertise to the development of vibrant work communities. These award-winning environments are situated within a mixed-use community including corporate, retail and residential components. From concept to community, The Hankin Group offers new perspectives and possibilities. Contact Jack Purcell or Stacy Martin for information. DISTINCTIVE COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES
707 EAGLEVIEW BLVD SOLAR PANEL PROJECT
610.458.1900 HankinGroup.com
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Solutions MECHANICAL ELECTRICAL PLUMBING FIRE PROTECTION REFRIGERATION ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING LEED ADMINISTRATION ENERGY MODELING SYSTEM EVALUATIONS BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING
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november–december 2013
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Approach operations The Chatham Walmart is testing an efficient HVAC system that uses waste heat from the refrigeration units to heat the building. The technology may make its way into Walmart’s basic prototype.
Nearly every square foot of the Chatham Walmart’s roof is or soon will be vegetated.
Walmart Harvests Waste Heat at Chicago Superstore The global retailer pilots a new mechanical system to turn waste heat into energy-efficient heating and cooling Chatham, a middle-class neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, is now home to one of approximately three dozen “high-efficiency” Walmart stores nationwide. The superstore is a living laboratory in which the retail behemoth is testing a number of leading-edge sustainability efforts, the most notable of which is an integrated HVAC and refrigeration system that uses waste heat from refrigerated grocery cases to heat the facility.
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“Walmart has always designed highly efficient buildings,” says Scott Webb, principal of MPW Engineering, the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based MEP engineering firm that designed the integrated system. “This particular store is even more energy-efficient than a typical store … [thanks to] the heating, air-conditioning, and refrigeration system.” According to Webb, the system uses a closed water loop to capture rejected heat from the refrigeration equipment
in the store’s grocery cases and walk-in freezers and coolers. The process captures heat that is removed from products that are coming in to be cooled, then transfers that heat to be used in other parts of the store as space heating. “That cuts down drastically on the natural gas, electricity, and other fuel sources needed to heat and cool the store,” Webb says. In addition to the closed water loop, the system features three 100-ton fluid coolers, three 5,000-cfm air-handling dehumidification units, and a factory-built house pump that contains three 15-HP pumps, plus all of the system controls. Swedish company Munters—whose DryCool commercial dehumidifiers use environmentally friendly R-410A refrigerant to conserve energy—provided and designed much of the store’s mechanical equipment. “If condensation starts forming on the refrigerated cases and freezers, defrost heaters have to burn in order to take that off,” Webb says. “So if you can keep the interior space of the store at a lower humidity, you can reduce the amount of energy consumed by defrost heaters.” gbdmagazine.com
APPROACH
The Chatham store opened in January 2012, but it’s still too early to tell whether its integrated mechanical system is a winner for the rest of Walmart’s stores. “We test things and we pilot things,” says Don Moseley, Walmart’s director of sustainable facilities. “And when things show the type of return on investment we think we need and that our maintenance people are able to maintain them in a good, efficient manner, we incorporate them into our prototypical program. This store’s integrated mechanical and refrigeration system is still being studied and analyzed in order to determine if it’s the best business decision for us to put it in our new-store program going forward.” When a new technology eventually does graduate from pilot to prototype, its environmental impact is significant due to Walmart’s enormous footprint. “With the number of stores and combined square footage, Walmart is one of the biggest private energy consumers in the world,” Webb says. “When they make changes in their systems that lower energy consumption, it has a huge impact.”
81%
Area of the Chatham Walmart Supercenter’s 148,364-square-foot green roof is covered with vegetation, and the remaining square footage is used for mechanical equipment
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“With the number of stores and combined square footage, Walmart is one of the biggest private energy consumers in the world. When they make changes in their systems that lower energy consumption, it has a huge impact.” Scott Webb, MPW Engineering
Case in point: Walmart tested using LED lighting for its freezer and doored cases in 2005. The company made it part of the Walmart prototype a year later, and Moseley says that today a customer would be hard-pressed to find a case that had anything in it other than LED lights. In fact, today, all new Walmarts have refrigerated cases with LED lighting, including Chatham, which also boasts several other sustainable features. Inside, skylights provide natural lighting on the sales floor and in the stock room, such that the store often can dim, and sometimes altogether turn off, its artificial lighting system. It also has a green roof, gb&d
tree hugger By building sustainability – recycling materials, minimizing site disturbance, and sourcing local materials – JE Dunn insists on minimizing the construction footprint on our environment. Building Green. Building Better.
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APPROACH OPERATIONS
Modular makes data centers more efficient Cyrus One uses an innovative, scalable modular approach to adapt new systems to their sites Data centers are large energy consumers but are a necessity in today’s computeroriented society, which is why companies such as Cyrus One, with data center facilities across the country in Phoenix, Cincinnati, Chicago, and several in Texas, work to improve efficiency in any way it can. Cyrus One has what it calls its Massively Modular approach. The company has a set data center design that can be replicated across the country and on line in an average of just 16 weeks. “We aim to be the one-stop-shop for the most efficient options in any given market in which we do business,” says Kevin Timmons, chief technology officer at Cyrus One.
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Because the Cyrus One data center in Carrollton, Texas, is a quarter mile long, the employees use electric scooters to travel from one end to the other.
As part its modular approach, Cyrus One’s data centers have external cooling units that allow the center to scale up or down according to clients’ needs.
Flexible and efficient, the modular strategy provides customers with exactly the services they need, fast. “It is essentially modularity at every level but in a large-format facility,” Timmons says. “We have physical footprint flexibility and flexibility in terms of different redundancy levels, all on the same infrastructure.” Along with being customizable to the needs of each customer, the modular approach offers a number of environmental benefits. Cyrus One can fine-tune the system to capitalize on the site specifics of each data center. “In Phoenix, we sat down with our design team and looked at the plot of land, the prevailing winds, temperatures, humidity, and so on,” Timmons says. Planning for the site also allows Cyrus One to use evaporative cool-
Although it’s located in the metropolitan area of Phoenix, the 60-acre site that is now a Cyrus One data center was an alfalfa field with several herds of sheep up until a week before construction.
ing and other energy-efficient systems. With the modular systems, the company focuses on the efficiency of the mechanical plant and the extensive use of plugand-play cooling units to minimize the environmental impact of the manufacturing and transportation streams. Recent data centers, such as one in Chandler, Arizona, built by JE Dunn Construction, showcase the sustainable features of the massively modular design. Timmons says that a noticeable feature of the new centers is the big boxes, which are actually the cooling units that plug into the side of the building. These external units allow Cyrus One to scale up or down to accommodate the needs of the customers using each facility. “When we’re designing a center, we can’t predict what kind of customers are going to come into the facility, so we design it with tons of flexibility,” Timmons says. If higher-density customers demand more power, the site is scaled up. But when customer requirements call for fewer resources, the design is scaled down to eliminate waste. “Every one of those units that we don’t buy is real material that isn’t being manufactured, transported, and installed,” Timmons says. gb&d —Julie Knudson
“We have physical footprint flexibility and flexibility in terms of different redundancy levels, all on the same infrastructure.” Kevin Timmons, Cyrus One gbdmagazine.com
photos: dave fish
which is 81 percent vegetated in compliance with a Chicago city ordinance requiring the roofs of all new buildings to be at least 50 percent vegetated. Speaking of roofs, yet another green building highlight is the store’s internal roof drains. “When it rains, the water … is collected into an internal piping system that routes it underground into the storm-water system,” Webb says. The roof drains rely on siphonic motion instead of gravity during peak rain periods, allowing associated piping to be much smaller. “In Chicago, you have to use cast-iron pipes for internal roof drains,” Webb continues. “The difference between a 6-inch and a 12-inch cast-iron pipe is almost three times the weight in metal. In sustainability, you want to minimize the amount of materials you use because somewhere down the line those materials are going to be disposed of.” gb&d —Matt Alderton
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List 34
Advocate Health care
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Walgreens
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Glenn Heinmiller and John Martin
Designing with the new LEED for Healthcare The country’s first net-zero-energy retail store Meet the men remaking the energy code
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Abode modern lifestyle developers
The team behind a green, luxurious Cleveland
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Eric Lloyd Wright
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Hughes Development
gb&d
The grandson of the great architect carries on Downtown Greenville is the place to be
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TRENDSETTERS
Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois, has two buildings under construction. The design of the East Tower, which adheres to new standards under LEED for Healthcare, used energy modeling to determine the amount and placement of windows.
Advocate’s Evidence for Energy Savings As LEED for Healthcare presents new credits (and challenges) for hospitals, new building projects provide data on energy modeling By Russ Klettke
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T
he Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act states a very strong directive to reduce the overall costs of health care in the United States. Accordingly, medical facility managers and designers are searching for ways to reduce costs without compromising the quality of patient care. Hospital managers have been looking to measures that help tame the energy use of facilities required to be operational 24/7/365, and it has had a profound impact on hospital operations. The Chicago-area Advocate Health Care system, a 250-site health-care organization based in Oak Brook, Illinois, has embarked on a building program costing hundreds of millions of dollars that happens to coincide with the implementation of the USGBC’s new LEED for Healthcare rating system. This arguably places more exacting standards on what sustainability means in health care and adds a layer of complexity in an already complicated scenario. Advocate’s several hospitals look to improve patient outcomes through smart design. Each will bring daylight indoors, gbdmagazine.com
TRENDSETTERS
provide views to nature, and maintain essential indoor climate controls with minimal energy use. These factors promote quicker recoveries, shorter stays, and reduced medication use, and staff health is likely to benefit along the way. “We certainly follow a philosophy of designing and building healthy spaces that will have a positive impact on patient and staff health and be efficient to operate,” says Mary Larsen, system leader of environmental stewardship for Advocate. “It’s clear that patient experiences and possibly health outcomes are improved when they can see outside, be exposed to sunshine, and have places of quiet respite.” The hospital’s roots as a faith-based organization (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and United Church of Christ) drive a culture of stewardship and conservation, which naturally includes efficiency and ties it all together: less energy used, environments that promote healing, and staff that engage in sustainability. But creating all of this begins in the planning phase. New building projects at the Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois, exemplify its approach. To accommodate growth in need and a desire to cut energy costs, two buildings are under construction: one that serves outpatients only and another that includes patient beds, surgical suites, higher-level imaging systems, and the mechanical systems to support it. The outpatient pavilion can close at nights and on weekends, reducing the need for lighting, heating, and cooling, but the inpatient tower is set up for continuous occupation and operation. “By consolidating the outpatient services, we can take advantage of energy savings,” says Grace Gonzaga, an architect and project manager who oversees design and bidding at Advocate. “We know we can extend the life span of the HVAC system as one means to manage health-care operational costs.” gb&d
Deconstructing LEED for Healthcare Published in April 2013, LEED for Healthcare addresses specific demands of healing environments, an important distinction given the special demands of hospitals, clinics, and skilled nursing facilities. These needs include 24/7/365 operations, a highly regulated environment, water- and energy-intensive operations, and climate control. Add to that evidence-based design’s prioritization of human-centered facilities with visual or physical access to nature, and the modern hospital system has innumerable demands. LEED for Healthcare, with new points for “Connection to the Natural World” and “PBT Source Reduction,” acknowledges those demands while incentivizing vegetated roofs and other conscious landscape elements and maximal daylighting with larger and more extensive windows. For all the credits, visit usgbc.org/leed/rating-systems/healthcare.
“By consolidating the outpatient services, we can take advantage of energy savings.” Grace Gonzaga, Advocate Health care
The inpatient tower is an eight-level, 308,000-square-foot structure due for completion in 2015. Combined with an existing building that had 40,000 square feet of renovated space, the complete facility will cost $189 million. Energy modeling of the project, which is a requirement in LEED for Healthcare, demonstrated that 30 percent glass on the exterior is the sweet spot for balancing energy and daylighting. Architect Gregory Heiser from Cannon Design says this finding was balanced with other objectives: to minimize heat loss and gain and to establish operationally efficient floor plans. “This facility decentralizes nursing stations, bringing that care closer to patients,” Heiser says, adding that maximized windows for staff are beneficial to their sense of well-being. The design has same-handed room layouts (meaning all caregiving follows the same floor pattern), monitoring of air volumes, submetering of water end-uses, water-efficient fixtures and systems, low-VOC products and finishes, and food-waste reduction. Plus, nearly 90 percent of construction waste will be recycled. In Barrington, Illinois, another Chicago suburb, a plan to build a new addition to Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital includes substantial site work. An existing storm-water retention pond is slated to be transformed to look and feel more like a natural body of water with native plantings to mitigate parking area runoff. The landscape design blends with the building architecture to create a seamless transition from the landscape to the lobby. Peter Messina, who is working with HOK on the design of the Good Shepherd renovation and addition, notes how staff and community input on this design prioritized patient care and sustainability—less so aesthetics. “People here are very grounded,” he says. “There is no strong push to grandiosity.” This hospital will strive for LEED for Healthcare Gold, november–december 2013
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TRENDSETTERS Advocate Health Care
Re-Imagining Patient Care and Advancing Environmental Stewardship.
ADVOCATE HEALTH CARE Good Shepherd Hospital Modernization Project Barrington, Illinois
Christ Medical Center Location Oak Lawn, IL Size 308,000 ft2 (inpatient tower), 325,000 ft2 (outpatient pavilion) Cost $259 million
We CARE. We Create. We Inspire. We Connect.
hok.com
Mary Larsen, Advocate Health care
“GI Energy provides sustainable energy solutions for buildings. Trusted clients include blue-chip organizations such as Land Securities, Skanska, and Walgreens”
Founded in 2001, GI Energy is the UK market leader in commercial ground source heat pump (GSHP) solutions, with a rapidly growing presence in North America. GI Energy has recently embarked on Walgreen’s Evanston Net Zero store and has completed large scale projects from New York to Seattle. Alongside GSHP solutions we also offer a range of CoGen solutions, an ultra
efficient heating, cooling and power generation technology. GI Energy’s funding arm has successfully financed geothermal systems, thereby eliminating upfront cost to the owner. This innovative approach to renewable energy technology and funding solutions, along with comprehensive service, means GI Energy is widely recognized as best in sector.
At GI Energy the unrivaled depth of experience enables us to tailor solutions for our core market segmentsretail, healthcare, education, office, infrastructure, multi-family residential, hospitality, emergency services and military installations. Our offices in New York, Chicago, LA and San Francisco allow us to offer a nationwide service.
www.gienergy.net providing sustainable energy
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“It’s clear that patient experiences and possibly health outcomes are improved when they can see outside, be exposed to sunshine, and have places of quiet respite.”
30%
Portion of Advocate’s Christ Medical Center in Illinois that is glass. Energy modeling found this ratio allowed the requisite views while limiting heat gain.
but at this stage plans are fluid because the completion date is expected for 2017. Smart roofs (white and possibly vegetated), enhanced glazing systems, and recycling construction debris are all currently planned. As both projects are in the design stage, Larsen, Gonzaga, Heiser, and Messina are grappling with the new requirements of LEED for Healthcare. All say they feel that points in the energy use categories are oddly tied to costs, not BTU reductions, a criticism the USGBC might reconsider in the future. Heiser says, “It’s a great direction, but it’s a first edition.” Health-care facilities are demandingly complicated, after all, and within Advocate’s stewardship of patient health, employee health, resource conservation, and cost-containment, the solutions must be commensurately complex. gb&d gbdmagazine.com
TRENDSETTERS
Dual wind turbines
Deep overhangs
Extensive natural light
How Walgreens Designed the Corner Store of Tomorrow Wrapping up construction on the first net-zero-energy retail store in the country, Walgreens hopes to set an important precedent for nationwide retailers By Matt Alderton
gb&d
When they pop into the Walgreens store at the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Keeney Street in Evanston, Illinois, consumers probably will be buying milk, refilling their prescription, or printing photos from their summer vacations. When they exit, however, they’ll leave with more than groceries and photos—they’ll have experienced the first net-zero-energy retail store in the United States, which will be open to the public by the end of 2013. “As they’re walking around inside the store, people will be able to read little bits of information on signs that tell them what the store is doing, how its system works, why it’s important, and how it minimizes its impact on the environment,” says Jamie Meyers, Walgreens’ manager of sustainability. “Also,
800 solar panels
The new Walgreens in Evanston will generate 256,000 kWh, but a typical store requires almost twice that. To achieve net zero energy, the design had to be hyper-efficient.
there will be a kiosk at the front of the store that will tell people how the store is doing—how much energy it’s producing, how much energy it’s saving, what its environmental impact is—so that they can actually watch us as we trend toward being net-zero energy.” Building a net-zero-energy retail store is an ambitious goal, even for a company the size of Walgreens, which operates more than 8,000 stores across the country. Still, it’s a challenge the retailer embraced with ingenuity and excitement in pursuit of its brand promise. “We want to be ‘at the corner of happy and healthy,’ and part of that is minimizing our environmental impact,” Meyers says. “Anything that we can do to save water, save energy, reduce pollution, and reduce [waste] fits right in with our brand.” Although it’s always had “green” in its name, the 112-year-old retailer only recently learned the word “sustainability.” “We’ve always built our stores economically with an eye toward low maintenance and life-cycle costs because it makes good business sense, but the concept of sustainability—in particular, the triple bottom line [of people, planet, profits]—is relatively new inside of Walgreens,” Meyers says, who assumed his present position in 2010, prior to which he spent 11 years as a store architect. The company has learned the pillars of sustainability quickly. Prior to building this net-zero-energy store, Walgreens had 150 stores with solar installations, one with a wind turbine, one with geothermal technology, three with all-LED lighting, and several more with various levels of LEED certification. In 2011, it november–december 2013
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TRENDSETTERS Walgreens
Project
Team
Green
LOCATION Evanston, IL Size 14,000 ft2 Completed 2013 (expected) Program Retail
CLIENT Walgreens Architect Camburas & Theodore General Contractor Osman Construction Corporation HVAC Trane, Green & Cool Lighting Acuity, Cooper, CREE, GE Geothermal Geothermal International Energy SoCore Energy, Wing Power Masonry CalStar Products
CERTIFICATION LEED Platinum (expected) Water Storm-water collection, lowflow plumbing fixtures Energy Solar panels, wind turbines, LED lighting, daylight harvesting, geothermal, carbon dioxide refrigerant Landscaping Native plants Materials Low-VOC finishes, concrete parking lot
The net-zero concept for this Evanston store is part of a larger Walgreens corporate initiative to reduce energy use by 20% by 2020.
began wondering what would happen if all those technologies were combined under one roof, in a single store. “We realized that we’d be very close to creating a building that generated more energy than it consumed,” Meyers recalls. “We presented this to our executive management, tied it into our brand, and they gave us the OK to pursue it.” The company chose Evanston as the site of the new store, which is seeking LEED Platinum certification, because it’s just 30 minutes from Walgreens’ corporate headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois, and because the Chicago suburb has a long history of supporting greenbuilding projects. Construction commenced in March 2013 following a rigorous design process that required a delicate balancing act between energy creation and consumption. “A typical Chicago store uses about 425,000 kilowatt-hours per year of energy, and we were only able to produce about 256,000 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy [because of the site’s limited size],” Meyers says. “So our real challenge was dropping our energy usage [by nearly 50 percent] from 425,000 kilowatt-hours
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down to 200,000 to 225,000 kilowatthours and still keeping the store operating like a normal Walgreens.” Indeed, operating like a normal Walgreens—complete with all the energyintensive features of a typical drugstore, such as refrigerated coolers, cash registers, pharmacy robotics, ATM and Redbox machines, and lighted product displays—was one of the store’s primary goals. To achieve it without jeopardizing its energy objectives, Walgreens integrated proven technologies with brand new ones. For example, the store features more than 800 rooftop solar panels, two wind turbines, a geothermal energy system, daylight harvesting, and LED lighting, inside and out, all of which had been previously tested at other Walgreens stores. “Walgreens sought out and incorporated Cooper Lighting’s most energyefficient exterior LED lighting solutions, including several Lumark brand Navion parking lot and Crosstour wall-mount LED luminaires, that produce a warm white light and provide even illumination to enhance customer safety,” says Jill Underwood, the sales manager for
national accounts at Cooper Lighting. “The Lumark Navion luminaire provides an energy savings of up to 70 percent compared to standard HID product solutions while the Crosstour wall pack can provide savings of up to 85 percent.” Alongside tried-and-true technologies like LED lighting, Walgreens incorporated some new innovations. Namely, an integrated heating, cooling, and refrigeration system that uses a geothermal carbon dioxide heat pump from Swedish company Green & Cool to capture heat generated by the store’s refrigeration systems. The system then uses the hot air for heating the store and heating water. “All of the refrigerant on the project is carbon dioxide … because it allows us to be more energy efficient and has a very, very low globalwarming potential,” Meyers says. In order to maintain their competitive advantage, many companies elect to keep their sustainability metrics private. In pursuit of maximum impact, however, Walgreens has opted for full transparency. In addition to the aforementioned in-store signs and kiosk, it established a Walgreens Net Zero Community Facebook page to communicate goals and progress during the store’s construction and is openly collaborating with corporations and academics that want to learn best practices. In so doing, Walgreens hopes its success eventually can be replicated not only at the rest of its 8,000 stores but also at those of other retailers, multiplying the environmental benefits exponentially. “When you start to look at stores like us … we represent a very large portion of the commercial building footprint in the United States,” Meyers says. “We can collectively have a rather large impact on reducing our energy usage and minimizing our environmental impact. At Walgreens, we have 125 million square feet that we can apply some of these concepts to, so whatever we can do within our footprint I know will have a positive impact on the environment.” gb&d gbdmagazine.com
Walgreens, Naperville, IL Interior and exterior products in application: Corelite LED Loft/JAYLUM Halo LED Downlights and Track Lighting McGraw-Edison Ventus LED Parking Luminaires and Impact LED Wall Packs
Cooper Lighting Supports Walgreens Sustainable Practices. We offer an incredible portfolio of LED lighting and controls solutions. And every one of our products is driven by innovation and built on rock-solid reliability. We are committed to developing new technologies that improve efficiency, reduce costs, enrich the quality of life and protect the environment, while meeting or exceeding your needs everywhere, every time. www.cooperlighting.com
TRENDSETTERS
Lam Partne design rs s Jones for La LaSalle ng on p. 108
Changing of the CodeS
Interview by Benjamin van Loon
Approximately six years ago, in an attempt to deliver on its mission to minimize energy use and support innovative lighting design, the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) formed an Energy and Sustainability Committee. Led by IALD member Glenn Heinmiller, a principal at Lam Partners, and supported by John Martin, IALD’s public policy consultant, the committee now is working hard to affect lighting design policy and code changes across the globe. We spoke with Heinmiller and Martin about this process. gb&d: The IALD has been around since 1969, but it’s largely the formation of the Energy and Sustainability Committee that led to IALD’s involvement in looking at energy codes. Why is this?
“There wasn’t enough lighting design expertise being applied to the development of the codes, so that’s what we’ve been doing over the past five years … establishing ourselves as the lighting experts.” Glenn Heinmiller, Lam Partners
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Heinmiller: Over the past decade, energy codes have gotten more stringent. Before then, we didn’t really need to worry much about the codes, but as they got more stringent, we came to realize that these codes might be getting so stringent that they would prevent us from producing quality lighting. There wasn’t enough lighting design expertise being applied to the development of the codes, so that’s what we’ve been doing over the past five years: code development, getting involved, getting our voice heard, and establishing ourselves as the lighting experts, which we have done for the IECC, ASHRAE 90.1, California Title 24, and especially LEED.
Martin: Prior to the IALD’s deeper involvement in helping shape energy codes, the main way American energy codes worked to reduce lighting energy use for lighting was simply to tighten down lighting power densities (LPDs). Our members who have been active on the various code committees instead said that if you want to minimize energy use, rather than just tightening LPDs, let’s look at control, daylighting, and other approaches that reduce energy use in practice and not just on paper.
gb&d: In what way are the IALD and its committees involved in affecting this kind of policy change?
Heinmiller: A major part of our work is the education of our members and the lighting community. I do presentations at Lightfair as well as our own conference just talking about energy codes. I didn’t know much about them until a few years ago. A lot of what we need to do is simply learn how they work. And now we know.
Martin: The IALD, and specifically the Energy and Sustainability Committee under Glenn’s leadership, has moved away from being merely reactive in response to codes or proposals. After several years of concerted work, we’re able to have a positive impact on the direction of those very codes and standards that affect our members’ work, shaping them in ways that allow our members to do quality lighting design and minimize energy use at the same time.
gb&d: Policy and energy codes are complicated. What else is the IALD doing to substantiate this work?
Martin: All of this work from the IALD— the individuals who put in so many hours to become experts on these codes and how to change them to help meet the code’s goals—this is volunteer work. People like Glenn are giving up billable time to help make sure that the world is a better place, which sounds highfalutin, but it’s true. gb&d
Heinmiller: Our approach is not to simply object to what someone else is proposing, but to actually be the person making the proposal. We’ve tried to be a neutral party as much as possible. As with the IECC development, we partnered with energy-efficiency advocates, and instead of setting up in opposition, we instead asked how we could work together. gb&d: Can you give an example of how IALD’s work has created a positive change in energy codes?
Martin
Heinmiller
gbdmagazine.com
PHOTO: JOSHUA ALBANESE (martin)
Glenn Heinmiller and John Martin discuss the task of increasing lighting efficiency in the green-building world
TRENDSETTERS
Haute in Cleveland Exclusive access to top interior designers. Kayak-sharing programs. Optional helipads. Welcome to the vision of Abode. By Lindsey Howald Patton
photo: Brad Feinknopf
W
hen thinking of a city to attend the symphony, see artworks by the usual contemporary suspects, and eat a meal artistically prepared by a James Beard nominee, Cleveland, which has the unfortunate distinction of being second only to Detroit in terms of population loss in recent years, isn’t the first city that springs to mind. But real estate developer Andrew Brickman says Cleveland is exactly where gb&d
the good life awaits. In Cleveland, you can have your first-tier-city cake and eat it too—that is, you can see that Donald Judd installation, hear that Beethoven concerto, and then go home to your luxurious residence with all of its amenities at the end of the day, and you don’t have to wait in long tourist-filled lines, get stalled in traffic for hours, or pay heart-stopping sums of money to get it. Brickman’s company, Abode Modern Lifestyle Developers, grew out of about
he Eleven River townhomes are T situated along Rocky River, about 10 miles outside of Cleveland. The residential community is one of few in the US to solely use geothermal energy. With expansive glass façades overlooking the river, residents used products and services from Timan Window Treatments’ to help reduce solar heat gain.
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20 years of Brickman’s experience in commercial real estate. “I got interested in development as a result of that [experience],” he says, “because I saw so many mediocre projects where the architecture was poor, the site selection was pretty random, and they didn’t incorporate green technology.” Brickman decided to hone all of his efforts to developing residential projects at the highest end of the market in his native Cleveland, a former boomtown of the Midwest. In one sense, Abode is joining other residential real estate developers in Cleveland—and all over the nation— thinking creatively about filling a recent resurgence of interest in urban, walkable neighborhoods that are close to transit, sports stadiums, restaurants, cultural institutions, and green space. But the firm works to keep ahead of the competition in terms of luxury, sustainability, and redrawing the architectural landscape of Northeast Ohio by priding itself on building ultra-contemporary developments uncommon in the Midwest. A few typical features of their one-of-a-kind townhomes, all of which are designed by Dimit Architects, include Abode’s branded Clearspan Construction—no load-bearing features other than the exterior walls—that allows homeowners to customize the interior space; the Abode DesignBoard, for which the firm retains the city’s top interior designers and offers their services free of charge;
and, in the case of the Eleven River residences, even an optional helipad. From the beginning, Brickman made a conscious decision not to develop based solely upon price. “We were going to develop based upon quality of life and an excellent location,” he says. “And in addition to that, we were going to develop properties that were a higher design standard architecturally—using better materials, construction, and methodologies. We felt that unless you had something really special to sell, you were just going to be a commodity. And when you’re a commodity, it’s a race to the bottom in terms of price.” Eleven River, a $15 million geothermal-powered development on a cliffside overlooking the Rocky River, and another residential project in Cleveland’s Little Italy neighborhood, 27 Coltman, broke ground in early 2009, a few short months after the US housing bubble burst. “Other builders and other developers said to me, ‘You’re crazy,’” Brickman says. “But we still believed that there was a demographic wanting this kind of lifestyle who would get what we were doing. It was just about getting the message out.” Brickman invested heavily in brand strategy by bringing Justin Campbell, a creative director at a top local ad agency, in-house to spread the word about Abode’s devotion to quality, design integrity, and eco-friendliness. And it worked: 36 of the 38 residences in Eleven River gbdmagazine.com
photos: Brad Feinknopf (interior), Scott Dimit (rendering)
THIS PAGE Located in Cleveland’s Little Italy near the up-and-coming University Circle neighborhood, this group of townhomes, or “eco-lofts” as Abode calls them, were constructed on a reclaimed brownfield adjacent to a major bus route and RTA Red Line rail stop. Although founder Andrew Brickman (pictured) doesn’t seek LEED certification—“The benefits aren’t enough to justify the cost,” he says— 27 Coltman would have garnered Platinum.
TRENDSETTERS
“We felt that unless you had something really special to sell, you were just going to be a commodity. And when you’re a commodity, it’s a race to the bottom.”
THINK BLINDS... THINK TIMAN!
Andrew Brickman, Abode Modern Lifestyle Developers
Family owned & operated for 27 years!
Details Clifton Pointe LOCATION Lakewood, OH Size 88,000 ft2 Completed 2014 (expected) Cost $12 million
E
VIL ENGIN
ER
ING
- LA
ND
P CC
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LOCATION Cleveland Size 90,000 ft2 Completed 2011 Cost $10.5 million
CI
Details 27 Coltman
BLINDS, SHADES, DRAPERIES & SHUTTERS
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LOCATION Rocky River, OH Size 49,000 ft2 Completed 2013 Cost $15 million
19317 Detroit Rd. - Rocky River l 440.331.0185 22 North Main St. - Chagrin Falls l 440.247.8285 950 Keynote Cir. - Independence l 261.741.8285
RV E Y I N G
Details Eleven River
www.timanwindowtreatments.com
SU
DEVELOPER Abode Modern Lifestyle Developers Architect Dimit Architects Landscape Design New Vista Landscaping Contractor Abode Partners Roger Bliss, Donna Grigonis, Anna Avakyian, Isabelle Decco
ANNING
BELOW Abode’s most recent project adds 22 luxury homes to Lakewood, OH, a Gold Coaststyle community Travel + Leisure included in its list of “Coolest Suburbs Worth a Visit.” Clifton Pointe features a bike-, electric-car-, and kayaksharing program, private rooftop decks with views of Rocky River and Lake Erie, and 80 miles of wooded bike trails just outside the door.
Team
PL
and 27 Coltman sold with several price increases within the year. Abode’s latest project, Clifton Pointe, which also offers dramatic views of Rocky River and Lake Erie, pre-sold 21 of 22 residences within the first few months of construction earlier this year. Abode is also thinking creatively about how to give back to the Cleveland community. Guided by a late 17th-century French writing, “Charity well directed should begin at home,” Abode encourages residents to donate to local nonprofits of their choice and matches them dollar for dollar. “You know, we came up with this idea after the economy collapsed because all of the nonprofits were struggling,” Brickman says. And if Cleveland is to be on the rise again—which it may be, with an increasing medical industry, new casino, and other developers influenced by Abode’s work—the residents of Abode’s townhomes will be a part of lifting it up. gb&d
Pacific Coast Civil The Green Team
We have expanded our
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TRENDSETTERS
The Continuing Work of E ri c L
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W rig h T In one way, you could say the spirit of Frank Lloyd Wright lives on through his architecture. But more literally—and more importantly—the spirit of Wright lives on through his progeny—first through his son, Lloyd Wright, and now through his grandson, Eric Lloyd Wright. At 83 years old, Eric Lloyd Wright still operates both his architecture and planning firm, Eric Lloyd Wright & Associates, now in its 35th year, and the nonprofit project Wright Organic Resource Center from his 24-acre, Taliesin-like campus in the Santa Monica Mountains above Malibu, California. “What I work with are the principles of architecture, which Frank Lloyd Wright evolved and called ‘organic architecture,’” Wright says. “It works and cooperates with nature. We want to site the building properly and understand how the site works with the weather, what the directions of the winds are,
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At 83 years old, Frank Lloyd Wright’s grandson remains an active architect, using the same sustainable ideals to guide his work By Benjamin van Loon
where the direction of the sun is, trying to preserve the trees and shrubbery on the property. My grandfather and my father practiced this as well.” This “organic” concept not only predates the green-building trend of the past decade but also established the ideas that would come to be accepted as common sense concepts of smart design. Wright’s early education as his grandfather’s apprentice at Taliesin and Taliesin West from 1948 to 1956 allowed him to partake in iconic projects such as New York’s Guggenheim Museum and Monona Terrace in Madison, Wisconsin. Wright joined his father’s Hollywoodbased firm in 1956 and became a licensed architect in 1967 before forming his own firm in 1978 after his father’s death. For the past 40 years, Wright has been involved in the restoration and revitalization of his father’s and his grandfather’s projects, such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s gbdmagazine.com
TRENDSETTERS
“What I work with are the principles of architecture, which Frank Lloyd Wright evolved and called ‘organic architecture.’” Eric Lloyd Wright, Eric Lloyd WRight & Associates
Details Location Hollywood, CA Size 2,255 ft2 Completed 2007 Architect Eric Lloyd Wright & Associates Client Joe Pytka General Contractor Montgomery Construction Certification Not applicable
Auldbrass Plantation in South Carolina or Lloyd Wright’s Taggart House in California, but he has also built a diverse portfolio of his own with forms that are referential, idiosyncratic, and organically sustainable. His firm presently employs a team of five with Kevin Parkhurst and Hannah Wear—a husband-and-wife team—serving as chief associates at the firm and cofounders and coordinators of the Wright Organic Resource Center, which provides social and environmental education programs at the firm’s rustic, picturesque location, originally purchased but never developed by Lloyd Wright. “The site has a lot of things happening at any one time,” Parkhurst says. “The center has just about every book written on or about Frank Lloyd Wright gb&d
Spotlight Taggart House Completed in 2007, the restoration of the Taggart House, a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, included an overhaul of the kitchen and bathroom and the addition of a pool and pool terrace. Designed in the 1920s by Lloyd Wright for his mother-in-law (Eric Lloyd Wright’s grandmother), the original design afforded intimacy without diminishing the subtle grandeur of its Mesoamerican-influenced redwood exposures. Eventually, though, it began to show signs of wear. “The challenge was how to restore the house and bring it up to date, but at the same time not crush the existing architecture,” Wright says. “I don’t believe in restoration work that puts [something] back exactly as it was—especially if it was completed 50 or 60 years ago.” The exterior was reclad in stucco and redwood, and the landscaping was revitalized to bring a fresh, clean look to the Hollywood icon.
and organic architecture. It houses Eric Lloyd Wright’s archives and a materials resource collection—recycled glass terrazzo, bamboo floors, and so forth. We also celebrate nature here, holding a solstice or equinox celebration every three months recognizing the changing of the seasons, and we do a lot of other social events and workshops on alternative energy and natural building as well.” Eric Lloyd Wright’s work is thus not relegated to architecture but involves a respect for nature and the continuance of the Wright legacy. “If you’re going to do green architecture, it needs to be grown out of the environment, not separate from it,” Wright says. “If I follow the laws of nature and how nature operates, I will be designing on those principles.” gb&d november–december 2013
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TRENDSETTERS
Emerald of the Carolinas Named America’s top “microcity,” Greenville, South Carolina, has displayed a surprising tendency to precede trends in planning. Today, new projects such as ONE Greenville prove the city is only moving forward. By Kathryn Freeman Rathbone
Greenville, South Carolina, has been many things throughout its history, the “textile capital of the world,” among them. Today, according to fDi Intelligence, it is America’s No. 1 “microcity”—a city with less than 100,000 residents—a designation bestowed on it two years in a row in 2009 and 2010. Economic potential, quality of life, and infrastructure all factored into the rankings, yet it’s Greenville’s commitment to sustainability and urban renewal that has set it apart since the 1960s. Like many American cities, Greenville experienced a dual suburban boom and urban decline in the latter half of the
ONE Greenville, a mixed-use development attracting a number of new tenants to the city, offers green space on the roof and street level.
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TRENDSETTERS
20th century. But unlike many of its peers, Greenville quickly realized the importance of a thriving urban core. In the 1970s, Greenville launched an urban renewal plan that helped revitalize its downtown district. The city boldly renovated Main Street, reducing traffic from four lanes to two, adding plenty of free parking, and building a system of parks and plazas that all linked easily to the thoroughfare. Greenville’s planning commission also planted trees—lots and lots of trees—knowing that a green canopy above downtown’s central street would help combat the bleakness caused by post-industrial blight. “It worked,” says Robert Hughes, project manager at Hughes Development Corporation, located in Greenville. “Today, Greenville has a beautiful Main Street that’s often ranked as one of the top main streets in the country.” Main Street’s success set the precedent for Greenville’s larger ambitions: to become a sustainable small city with a thriving downtown. Development has continued down Main Street over the past 40 years, and today, ONE Greenville, the city’s newest mixed-use commercial center, is at the center of this revitalization. Hughes Development began work on ONE Greenville in 2009. Early in the project, Clemson University and CertusBank, two major South Carolina institutions, signed on as anchor tenants. Both were attracted to ONE’s focus on sustainability and downtown community engagement. “Hughes Development has always been committed to placemaking—we create places that people are drawn to,” Hughes says. “We also take our commitment to sustainability very seriously. It’s important to us, and it’s important to the future of Greenville.” Being able to achieve both goals required responsibly developing a site that combines green design initiatives with public place enhancement. Hughes Development chose the city’s former gb&d
Woolworth’s site for these reasons. “The building is at the corner of Main Street and Washington Street, which is the center of town and has been vacant for about 15 years,” Hughes says. “It’s also adjacent to Piazza Bergamo, which the city was planning to renovate to a lesser extent prior to the ONE development because it’s such a central public space.” With the site chosen, the developers issued a design competition for ONE Greenville’s architecture. The brief stated that the winning design would “show Greenville’s growth and resurgence and embody why it’s a great place to live.” With overt green features and subtle design achievements, the proposal from Denver’s 4240 Architecture won. The design consists of two mid-rise towers that sit on top of a street-level retail platform. 4240’s design incorporates many features that boost the building’s LEED score; this was a non-negotiable element for both Hughes Development and the project’s tenants—especially Clemson—from its architectural conception. “Clemson mandates that all of its new
rooftop classroom, please Although Clemson University wanted private outdoor classroom space, ONE Greenville’s site offered several constraints. So 4240 Architecture had to get creative. “There’s a 4,000-square-foot green roof on the fifth floor,” Robert Hughes says of the architectural solution. “It’s a lawn where classes can meet outside and events can be held.” CertusBank, which occupies the opposite tower, liked the green feature so much that it requested its own, and a 2,500-square-foot green roof was added on the fourth floor.
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TRENDSETTERS Hughes Development Corporation
“LEED Gold would not have been possible if our tenants had not been willing to chip in a little extra for some of the required upgrades.” Robert Hughes, Hughes Development Corporation
PROJECT LOCATION Greenville, SC Size 405,000 ft² Completed 2013 Program Two-phase urban infill commercial development with retail, classroom, and office space
TEAM DEVELOPER Hughes Development Corporation Project Architect 4240 Architecture General Contractor Brasfield & Gorrie Structural Engineer Uzun & Case Engineers MEP Engineer Barrett, Woodyard & Associates Landscape Architect CIVITAS Sustainability Consultant YR&G
GREEN CERTIFICATION LEED Gold (expected) Water Low-flow fixtures, highefficiency water heaters Energy Glass reduces solar gain, 36kW solar array, high-efficiency lighting fixtures Site Urban infill on site vacant for 15 years Landscape Adjacent to vegetated public plaza
ABOVE Greenville was once the “textile capital of the world” in the early 1900s. To pay homage to that history, 4240 Architecture used the ideas of fabric and weaving in the building’s façade.
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structures must be certified no lower than LEED Silver, so that was always a goal at ONE,” Hughes says. Hughes and 4240 worked with sustainability consultancy firm YR&G to maximize ONE Greenville’s performance. More than 34 different types of glass reduce the building’s solar gain, and a 36-kilowatt solar array, manufactured in Greenville by REFUsol International, helps capture and convert solar energy in order to power the building. Combined with highefficiency HVAC equipment and T5 light fixtures, these measures have reduced the building’s electrical consumption by 20 percent. Water consumption has also been drastically reduced—by 40 percent— due to 4240’s incorporation of low-flow water fixtures and high-efficiency water heaters. The design meets LEED Gold requirements, the certification level that Hughes is currently seeking. But it’s the complex’s public presence that drives home its commitment to downtown Greenville’s comeback. The architects decorated ONE’s façade with an abstract grid in homage to the city’s textile past, a move that literally weaves
the building into the regenerated Piazza Bergamo. New seating, upgraded landscape, and a sunshade make the plaza an optimal place to meet friends downtown, and apparently retailers are just as excited about the space as residents. ONE has been leased almost in full, and major retailers new to the city, including Anthropologie, Brooks Brothers, and Tupelo Honey Cafe, have recently opened their doors. “The response to the project has been exceptional,” Hughes says of the completed site. “Especially the response to the LEED Gold status, which has been overwhelmingly positive. LEED Gold would not have been possible if our tenants had not been willing to chip in a little extra for some of the required upgrades. They too are clearly committed to sustainability and making Greenville a better place.” With a community commitment to sustainable, holistic place-making, Greenville certainly does stand out from America’s other microcities. And if ONE Greenville is an indicator of projects to come, then the city can only keep improving from here. gb&d gbdmagazine.com
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List
k–12 schools
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Bertschi School
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The Hotchkiss School
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The willow School
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Green Dot public Schools
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The Met high School
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Inside the Northwest’s first Living Building A biomass plant designed to teach In New Jersey, plans for net zero
Active and passive solar in southern LA New plans for a new kind of learning
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PHOTOS: BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER
This massive green wall treats all greywater moving through the Bertschi School’s Living Science Building through closed-loop evapotranspiration. Despite floor-toceiling windows on the north side of the building, the architects added a skylight above the living wall for additional sunlight.
K–12 schools GREEN TYPOLOGIES
What if our schools were designed by students? What would they look like? Would they be bright energetic spaces full of light and plants and indoor rivers? Would they use provocative shapes and model simple, powerful ideas? Certainly we would not see as many brick buildings, white walls, and vinyl-tiled floors. Thanks to trends in sustainability and progressive design advocates, students are, in fact, being given the reins, and their ideas about the built environment and its impact on our social experiences are transforming the entire educational conversation. Kids, for example, aren't grossed out by composting toilets, and if we'll let them, high school students will build gardens at school and open community bike shops. From one of the first certified Living Buildings to an innovative wellness center in New Jersey, here are five green schools that show the kids are alright. By Benjamin van Loon
LIFE SCIENCES Bertschi School | Seattle KMD Architects
If LEED-certified buildings have become a thriving class of smartly planned, efficient structures, Living Buildings, certified under the Living Building Challenge, are a related but far more rare species. In 2011, when the Bertschi School in Seattle completed its 1,425-square-foot science building, there were only three Living Buildings in existence. The Bertschi project recently entered those exclusive ranks, becoming the fourth Living Building and the first on the West Coast. As it did, it also heralded a new approach to classroom design. Back in 2003, the Bertschi School, a pre-K–5 school in Seattle’s Capital Hill neighborhood, had launched a multiphase, $3.4 million master plan, hoping to green its one-block urban campus, which serves 235 local students and includes sustainability as a cornerstone component of its curriculum. In 2007, Bertschi completed its 12,290-squarefoot Bertschi Center, which became the first LEED Gold-certified building on an gb&d
independent school campus in the Pacific Northwest. But by 2009, funds were running low, and it seemed the school wouldn’t be able to deliver the final step of its master plan: a sciences building. That’s when the local firm of KMD Architects stepped up, seeing the opportunity to offer pro-bono design services to the school (after assurances that Bertschi would cover the construction costs) in order to create a true Living Building for the Seattle area, built to meet standards set forth by version 2.0 of the Living Building Challenge and complementing Bertschi’s already collaborative educational program with an interactive design scheme. KMD’s involvement with the project, aptly named the Living Science Building, was headed by KMD associates Stacy Smedley and Chris Hellstern. Although Smedley recently joined Skanska (who performed construction management on the project) as a preconstruction manager, she upholds her and KMD’s work at the Bertschi School as a chance to experiment and as a bold entry in the changing landscape of education. “KMD has a portfolio of some very large-scale projects,” Smedley says, “so this opportunity provided the firm a way to learn about Living Buildings as a case study.” november–december 2013
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GREEN TYPOLOGIES K–12 schools
BELOW The roof of the Living Science Building uses SIPs for additional insulation. The portion above the atrium is topped with a moss-mat green roof.
PROJECT
TEAM
GREEN
Location Seattle Size 1,425 ft2 Completed 2011 Cost $930,000 Program Elementary school classrooms and lab areas Awards AIA Seattle What Makes It Green? Award, 2012; SBIC Beyond Green High-Performance Building Award, 2012; National AIA Educational Facility Design Award, 2012
Architect KMD Architects Client Bertschi School Structural Engineer Quantum Consulting Engineers Civil Engineer 2020 Engineering Geotechnical Engineer GeoEngineers MEP/Energy Engineer Rushing Landscape Architect GGLO Pre-construction/Construction Skanska Building Envelope Consultant Morrison Hershfield Sustainability Consultant O’Brien and Company
Certification Living Building Challenge Site Urban city block in dense Seattle neighborhood Landscape Planted with an ethnobotanical garden Energy Net-zero supported by onsite photovoltaic system Water Living wall in classroom doubles as greywater treatment system Materials FSC-certified wood, formaldehyde- and VOC-free materials Education Exposed systems and student-led green ideas for interaction
“We involved the kids from the beginning of the process—they were active designers.” Stacy Smedley, Skanska 52
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The building is located on the 3,800-square-foot site of a former asphalt basketball court used by the Bertschi campus, with one wall shared by a converted church building and the surroundings planted with an ethnobotanical garden. The garden is an instructive tool that grows plants similar to those grown by former indigenous tribes of the land while also informing students about agriculture and gardening. The building exterior is clad in FSC-certified
cedar timber and insulated with FSCcertified structural insulated panels. A photovoltaic system provides all of the energy for the building, which has an annual carbon footprint of 2.4 pounds of carbon dioxide per square foot and an annual energy purchase of nine kBtus per square foot. Air in the building is scrubbed by a living wall, which is drip-irrigated by classroom-sink outflow. All of the systems in the building are exposed, saving on materials costs during gbdmagazine.com
PHOTOS: BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER
Outside the Living Science Building, an ethnobotanical rain garden and irrigation cisterns effectively reuse rainwater on-site.
K–12 schools GREEN TYPOLOGIES
“This opportunity provided [us] a way to learn about Living Buildings as a case study.” Stacy Smedley, Skanska
construction but also serving as valuable, hands-on teaching tools, allowing students to see and learn how the systems work firsthand. Additionally, an in-floor, glass-covered rainwater channel, referred to as a ‘river’ by Bertschi School students and faculty, runs through the concrete floor of the classroom, eventually feeding inground rainwater cisterns. It’s another visual educational tool, and it came from the students themselves. “We involved the kids from the beginning of the process— they were active designers,” Smedley
says. “When you start with the kids in this way, it becomes really easy to engage them in the learning process.” The building also has a composting toilet system. “Kids don’t have the trained fear of waste that adults acquire over the time,” Smedley says. “The kids think it’s the coolest thing ever that the waste eventually gets turned to compost and is spread on the garden.” The Living Science Building ultimately represents a new type of classroom—one that is healthy, interactive, and transparent—and provides students
hands-on access to what they’re learning in textbooks. The success of the project has led Smedley, along with one of her project partners, to start a nonprofit business called The SEED Collaborative, which is attempting to introduce living classrooms to other educational programs, nationally and internationally. “People and educators are getting excited about the idea because the healthy building component is great,” Smedley says, “but when they walk in and see the teaching opportunities—that’s when they really get excited.” gb&d
Rushing provided Energy, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering for the Bertschi School Science Wing, the 4th certified Living Building in the world!
rushingco.com | 206.285.7100 Rushing is a Seattle-based mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and sustainability consulting firm. Collaborative. Innovative. Client-Centered.
Mechanical Engineering | Sustainability Consulting | Electrical Engineering | Energy Analysis | Commissioning gb&d
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GREEN TYPOLOGIES K–12 schools
PROJECT Location Lakeville, CT Size 16,500 ft2 Completed 2012 Program Biomass power plant and central heating facility
Plant Power The Hotchkiss School | Lakeville, CT Centerbrook Architects and Planners Since its founding in 1891, The Hotchkiss School, a college preparatory boarding school seated on 810 wooded acres in Lakeville, Connecticut, has been educating the elite tiers of the American intelligentsia, and now, the campus’s new 16,500-square-foot biomass power plant serves to complement that mission and make it greener in the process—an estimated six million pounds of carbon dioxide per year greener, in fact. Noted for its undulating green roof that converses aesthetically and practically with the rain gardens and bioswales on-site, the biomass plant—designed by
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Centerbrook Architects and Planners— burns 5,400 tons of wood chips per year, is the third LEED-certified power plant in the United States, and is one of only 80 such biomass plants in the country. Power produced by the facility’s two Messersmith biomass boiler units, which operate at up to 82 percent efficiency, generate 14 million Btus per hour, use wood chips from FSC-certified forests, harvest waste ash to be used for fertilizer on the campus, and use an electrostatic precipitator to remove 95 percent of emitted particulate matter. It looks clean, and it burns clean. Most importantly, nature paths surrounding the plant and signage in the structure teach students and visitors about the various green strategies and devices being used by the facility, educating Hotchkiss’ future graduates on the importance of green consciousness. gb&d
TEAM Architect Centerbook Architects and Planners Client The Hotchkiss School Civil Engineer Milone & MacBroom Structural Engineer DeStefano & Chamberlain MEP Engineer Van Zelm Engineers LEED/Commissioning Consultant The Stone House Group
GREEN Certification LEED certified Energy Replacing oil-fired boiler reduces greenhouse gasses by up to 50% Water Green roof combines with bioswale and rain-garden system to filter runoff Plumbing Low-flow fixtures throughout the facility Landscape Facility is integrated with landscape, green roof
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K–12 schools GREEN TYPOLOGIES
The undulating green roof atop the Hotchkiss School’s biomass plant captures 50% of the site’s rainwater while simultaneously blending into the landscape.
photos: David Sundberg/Esto
LEFT The Hotchkiss School wanted its biomass plant to be a learning environment, so the building is adapted to teach students and community groups about the plant’s processes with explanatory charts and maps and computer consoles tracking performance metrics.
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ABOVE The biomass plant is powered with FSC-certified wood chips, which replace some 150,000 gallons of imported fuel per year, saving the 600-resident, 85-building campus $522,000 per year and aiding its goal of being carbonneutral by 2020.
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GREEN TYPOLOGIES K–12 schools
South Elevation
Modeling Virtue The Willow School | Gladstone, NJ Farewell Architects
PROJECT
GREEN
Location Gladstone, NJ Size 20,000 ft2 Completed 2013 (expected) Cost $7 million Program Classrooms, cafeteria, gymnasium
Certification LEED Platinum (expected), Living Building Challenge (expected) Energy Net-zero energy target Envelope R-20 below-grade insulation, R-40 walls, R-60 roof, R-5 triple-glazed windows Roof Various elevations slope inward for rainwater collection Water Potable water consumption reduced by 375,000 gallons per year Landscape Organic waste recycled, used as compost for vegetable gardens and fruit trees
TEAM In modern education, there’s a lot of talk about value, but the idea of virtue has been almost entirely lost—except at the small, K-8 Willow School in Gladstone, New Jersey, is aiming to restore virtue by not only instilling it in the curriculum, but communicating it through the campus itself. The school’s newest building, the Health, Wellness, and Nutrition Building, is a 20,000-square-foot example of this idea—the structure was designed by Farewell Architects to meet Living Building Challenge standards, achieve LEED Platinum certification, and generate all its own energy. “If we’re going to have a school where we talk about what it means to have an ethical relationship with another human being, we need to have an ethical relationship with nature,” says Mark Biedron, who founded the school in 2003 with his wife Gretchen. “That’s the light bulb that went off, and we knew we needed to build green buildings.” Master-planning on the 34-acre site started in 2001 when the Willow School teamed with Farewell Architects to begin siting the school. “By nature, this has been a very collaborative, community process,” says Michael Farewell, princi-
Architect Farewell Architects Client The Willow School Envelope Consultant Maclay Architects MEP Engineer Joseph R. Loring & Associates Structural Engineer Christie Engineering Civil Engineer Apgar and Associates Landscape Design Back to Nature Integrative Design Integrative Design Collaborative LEED/Living Building Challenge Consultant Sustainable Growth Technologies
pal at Farewell Architects. “It has been very complementary of the program of the school.” The wellness building is part of the third phase of the master plan, and the building both complements and improves upon the sustainable precedents set by two previous buildings—the first achieved LEED Gold and the second Platinum. “Because this building is aiming for the next level with the Living Build-
ing Challenge, it’s being quite bold in a lot of its design choices,” Farewell says. “The site is on the edge of the New Jersey highlands, which has a ridge and valley structure, and this building’s massing echoes that idea.” It’s a multiuse building with a program for classrooms, a cafeteria and kitchen, gymnasium space, and correspondent support spaces. A circulation spine running through the one-story
West Elevation
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K–12 schools GREEN TYPOLOGIES
North Elevation
building links the spaces, and a depression in the center of the building, mirroring the topography of the highlands, collects water from the roof that is then used for irrigation and toilet functions. In addition to other requisite and high-caliber sustainable features—east/ west-axis, daylighting, and a photovoltaic array—the building also has an extremely
N JR ou te
Health, Wellness, and Nutrition Center
Constructed Wetland
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Upper School Art Barn
“Because this building is aiming for the next level with the Living Building Challenge, it’s being quite bold in a lot of its design choices.”
Lower School
Early Childhood Development
Admin. Building
. Pottersville Rd
Michael Farewell, Farewell Architects efficient envelope with R-20 below-grade insulation, R-40 walls, an R-60 roof, and R-5 triple-glazed windows. “The question now is, how do you make a building that actually makes the environment better for being there?” Biedron says. “We’re trying to change the model; the built environment model, the curricular model—and, really, the way we think, as human beings.” That’s virtue. gb&d
ABOVE The new Health, Wellness, and Nutrition classrooms will look similar to the existing classrooms (pictured), but they won’t have the wood paneling—it will be all open to let in as much daylight as possible.
ABOVE To keep a similar aesthetic throughout the campus buildings, Farewell Architects is using a stone and metal roof similar to the one on this classroom building at the Willow School.
East Elevation
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GREEN TYPOLOGIES K–12 schools
PROJECT
GREEN
Location Inglewood, CA Size 53,500 ft2 Completed 2013 Cost $17.3 million Program Charter high school Awards National American Institute of Architects Education Design Award; Westside Urban Forum, Westside Prize, Infill-Unbuilt, 2009
Certification LEED certified, at minimum (expected) Solar 75% of building energy needs met by 650 solar panels Site Landscaped courtyard with bleacher-style terracing Façade Ribbed screens modulate daylighting, fight heat gain Design Narrow floor plates increase daylight, cross-ventilation reduces mechanical loads Automation Motion sensors and intelligent thermostats, building management system
Architect Brooks + Scarpa Architects Client Green Dot Public Schools Structural Engineer Thornton Tomassetti MEP Engineer e2di Acoustical Engineer Veneklasen Associates Civil Engineer Barbara Hall Construction Manager Telacu
This high school’s design was influenced by Curtis and Davis Architects, who built numerous schools in New Orleans in the 20th century, using passive strategies to adapt them to the hot southern climate.
Solar Prowess Green Dot Animo Leadership School | Inglewood, CA Brooks + Scarpa Architects
Although the color reference in Los Angeles’ Green Dot Public Schools doesn’t intentionally reflect the schools’ commitment to sustainability, its new Animo Leadership High School in Inglewood, California, certainly does. Designed by Brooks + Scarpa Architects and completed in 2013 at a cost of $17.3
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million, the 53,500-square-foot high school is most notable for its prevalent and architectural use of solar panels with 650 panels covering the building’s southern exposure and rooftop portions. The photovoltaic array generates around 75 percent of the energy required for the school’s multifaceted loads and reduces
the building’s annual carbon emissions by more than three million pounds. In a diverse neighborhood seated along a flight path into LAX and adjacent to the 105 Century freeway, the structure is oriented and fine-tuned to be noiseresistant. Walkways and stairwells were designed to be unenclosed, serving to lessen mechanical loads and create connections between interior and exterior spaces. Additionally, the school—attempting to deconstruct the ‘big box’ mentality for school construction—features an interior courtyard with bleacher-style terracing, further promoting interaction in the student community. gb&d gbdmagazine.com
photos: john linden
TEAM
K–12 schools GREEN TYPOLOGIES
The Green Dot school’s west-facing façade is covered in this ribbed solar screen to minimize solar heat gain while still providing some daylight and views from within the building.
RIGHT The 650 solar panels on the Green Dot Animo Leadership School, a dynamic architectural element, provide 75% of the building’s energy needs. Far Right While the south façade converts sunlight to electricity, the east-facing side has louvers to help control it.
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Alternative Reuse The Met High School | Sacramento, CA Stafford King Wiese Architects
PROJECT
GREEN
Location Sacramento, CA Size 27,500 ft2 Completed 2012 Cost $6.9 million Program Charter high school campus renovation and multipurpose building addition
CERTIFICATION Not applicable Site Renovation of extant building Energy Surpassed Title 24 by 26% Waste 75% of construction waste recycled during renovation Landscape Drought-resistant vegetation Water Low-flow fixtures reduce outdoor water use by 50% and indoor water use by 40% Transportation 50% of students ride bikes thanks to student-created community bike shop
TEAM Architect Stafford King Wiese Architects Client The Met High School, Sacramento City Unified School District Contractor Turner Construction
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The Met Sacramento—a charter high school in the Sacramento City Unified School District—was originally founded in Sacramento in 2003 as an extension of Big Picture Learning’s innovative national education program, which emphasizes customizable educational paths for its 300 students, or ‘Metsters’ who are led by ‘advisors’ rather than ‘teachers.’ Metsters choose an educational path and internship opportunities that correspond with their own interests as they move through the four-year curriculum. It’s a style of education conducive to creativity and collaboration, which are both reflected and developed in Stafford King Wiese Architects’ (SKW) $6.9 million, sustainable renovation of the school’s 27,500-square-foot downtown campus. “The Sacramento City Unified School District has been a longtime client of SKW, so our work with The Met was successful due in part to the relationship with the district and understanding their vision for this program,” says Pat Derickson, president of SKW. The school chose to renovate its 70-year-old, 22,000-square-foot building because it was the most sustainable option. “Prior to renovation, The Met was looking to expand and relocate their program, but they were looking at alternate sites,” Derickson says. “After our evaluation of the potential sites, the clear and most sustainable choice was to renovate the existing building.” SKW supported its evaluation with a proprietary points system that weighed the sustainability benefits of relocation versus renovation against both the Met’s mission as well as the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) movement, which, if the Met was designed in correspondence with that system, would make it eligible for much-needed grant money. By opting for renovation and reuse of the site—with its extant structure, courtyard area, and ability to add expanded space—instead of a new build, the school earned almost gbdmagazine.com
Photos: Donald Satterlee Photography
GREEN TYPOLOGIES K–12 schools
The translucent awning around the Met’s new building provides protection from the elements while allowing ample light to enter into the space. The school posted signs around the building to teach students about the various green measures employed in the design.
GREEN TYPOLOGIES K–12 schools
“Kids are learning differently today. Classrooms need to have flexibility, and they need to be adaptable ... so our kids can be prepared to compete on a global basis.” Pat Derickson, Stafford King Wiese Architects
$400,000 in High Performance Incentive Grant money. A primary component of the renovation process involved opening up the structure’s interior with higher ceilings and moving walls and then filling those spaces with mobile furniture, creating functionally diverse education areas filled with daylight. “Kids are learning differently today,” Derickson says. “Classrooms need to have flexibility, and they need to be adaptable to the pedagogy so our kids can be prepared to compete on a global basis.” The Met also has a raisedbed vegetable garden and community bike shop—created by Metster Jeremy Gray—complementing the school’s commuter-oriented focus. gb&d
ABOVE Half of The Met’s attendees bike to the school, and students made a mural made out of words describing the different parts of a bicycle for this on-site bike shop. TOP An aerial rendering shows the extensive courtyard areas. The Met is designed to CHPS standards (earning 45 out of 88 possible points). RIGHT All Metsters and their advisors have a morning meeting in the “Pick-Up” room. BOTTOM During construction, one Metster was interested in studying community gardens, so the school incorporated a garden into the plans, and it is now maintained by students.
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List Join the conversation! @gbd_mag
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NASA sustainability Base
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Bridgestone Technical Center
Inside McDonough’s revolutionary design New filter technology with massive savings
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moorhead Environmental Complex Sustainable in its processes and structure
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INNER WORKINGS
NASA Sustainability Base In-house technology and true cradle-to-cradle design drive William McDonough’s LEED Platinum Earthbound space station
No other name is as synonymous with the modern day sustainability movement as William McDonough. The architect, author, designer, and founding principal of William McDonough + Partners is world-renowned for his creation of cradle-tocradle design, an economic, industrial, and social framework developed with chemist Michael Braungart that helps create systems that are both energy efficient and waste free. So, when planning began on the new NASA Sustainability Base—the agency’s new facility at the entrance of the Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in Mountain View, California—no one seemed a better fit than McDonough + Partners. NASA wanted the facility to showcase its culture of innovation and exceed LEED Platinum standards. The result is unlike any government building ever created. By Tina Vasquez
NASA Technology The 50,000-square-foot, crescent-shaped structure was inspired by the wind
tunnels of the NASA Ames Campus and images of NASA satellites, McDonough says. Aesthetically, the building responds to a half-century of NASA innovation, but its systems also were the result of a close collaboration between the architect and client, with the structure featuring NASA innovations originally engineered for space travel. For example, the base’s intelligent control technology was developed as part of NASA’s Aviation Safety Program to provide guidance control for aircrafts. In the Sustainability Base, the technology will be used to achieve building zone control with sensors providing real-time data about the airflow through the building.
The exterior of the NASA building is clad in Centria Dimension Series panels, which are Cradle to Cradle Silver-certified. In addition to using green materials, William McDonough + Partners designed the building for disassembly to further reduce waste.
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INNER WORKINGS
Native to Place The cradle-to-cradle philosophy
Photos: CESAR RUBIO, ERIC JAMES (top left)
Designed for Disassembly
A majority of the materials within the building are recyclable or recycled, salvaged, or rapidly renewable, but the structure also was designed for disassembly, so it could easily be dismantled or repaired in the case of a large seismic event. An external braced frame made of lightweight insulated metal was chosen to reduce the amount of steel in the building, and it also reduced the amount of material needed for construction (1). McDonough + Partners used a rigorous materials selection process for the Sustainability Base with Cradle to Cradle-certified products being chosen when it was cost effective. Materials designed for technical and biological cycles and materials that are beneficial to human health and ecological health were also chosen in every instance.
goes beyond avoiding environmental destruction; it advocates for design that is beneficial and regenerative for nature and humans. The Sustainability Base is no different. Generating 100 percent of its power and consuming 90 percent less water than a building of similar size, the structure and its surrounding landscape is designed ‘native to place,’ meaning it is making the most of the natural resources in its location while also blending into the surrounding environment and culture. The building’s orientation means that for 325 days out of the year, no artificial lighting is needed during working hours. The landscape surrounding the base also features native plants, flowers, and trees, a majority of which are drought resistant (2).
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To help protect the building from earthquakes, the NASA Sustainability Base has an exoskeleton, which made daylighting and sunshading strategies easier to incorporate.
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INNER WORKINGS NASA Sustainability Base
The exterior aluminum shades mitigate solar heat gain and reduce glare without obstructing natural lighting.
PROJECT LOCATION Mountain View, CA Size 50,000 ft2 Completed 2012 Program Office space Select Awards Acterra, 2013 Business Environmental Award, Sustainable Built Environment; White House GreenGov Award 2011, Lean Clean and Green; ENR California, Best Projects of 2011 Award of Merit
TEAM ARCHITECT William McDonough + Partners Client NASA Architect of Record / Landscape Architect of Record / Engineer AECOM Daylighting/Lighting/Energy Consultant Loisos + Ubbelohde General Contractor Swinerton Design Landscape Architect Siteworks Studio Materials Assessment McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry
CERTIFICATION LEED Platinum Materials Cradle to Cradle-certified when possible; recyclable or recycled, salvaged, and rapidly renewable Water Forward-osmosis water recycling system Energy Ground-source heat pumps, radiant heating and cooling, intelligent controls, high-performance lighting, solar photovoltaic/thermal panels Landscape Native, drought-resistant plants, flowers, and trees
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With abundant natural lighting, the building modeling suggests that electric lighting will only need to be used 42 days of the year.
Renewable Energy Sources
Forward Osmosis
The central energy goal for the facil-
The building has a forward-osmosis
ity was to create a system that solely used renewable forms of energy. Although natural ventilation and daylighting were relied upon heavily, the Sustainability Base is equipped with active heating and cooling systems, including four ground-source heat pumps and radiant heating and cooling, the latter of which results in 40 percent less energy use than a typical system. The structure also features intelligent, high-performing lighting systems, including LED fixtures (3) and a sophisticated lighting control system that automatically dims lights to adjust according to the time of day. The building’s 432 solar photovoltaic/thermal panels generate up to 30 percent of the building’s energy.
water recycling system that was designed specifically for the International Space Station—and is now being used in California. Essentially, the system uses water in continuous loops, with greywater from sinks and showers being treated for reuse in toilets and urinals. The system is capable of purifying water to drinkingwater quality, but the Sustainability Base will only be using cleansed water to irrigate surrounding landscape due to California regulations that limit the use of treated wastewater. NASA is, however, monitoring the technology and testing it in hopes of using it in space. gb&d PHOTOS: CESAR RUBIO
GREEN
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Behind the clean design are cutting-edge systems: 432 solar panels on the roof, groundsource heat pumps, radiant heating and cooling, high-performance lighting systems, and a Bloom’s Energy Server that produces energy from natural gas through a clean electro-chemical process. All told, the NASA Sustainability Base generates more energy than it needs.
INNER WORKINGS
Bridgestone Technical Center The inside scoop on the energy-saving, air-purifying, material-conserving technology from Erlab that helped this Ohio research facility reach LEED Gold
When Bridgestone, the world’s largest tire and rubber company, decided to build a new technical center in Akron, Ohio, with the objective of improving worker experience and contributing to environmental stewardship, the rubber met the road in green design. Working with SoL Harris/Day Architecture, Bridgestone stretched itself to submit for LEED Gold certification. Debuting revolutionary GreenFumeHood technology from Erlab and with $890,000 worth of energy savings engineered into the design, the Bridgestone Technical Center is a showpiece its owners hope will attract young talent in the same way it’s already turning heads in the green world. By Michelle Markelz
Sustainable Structure
coconut Filters
A host of
GreenFumeHood filters are made of
structural elements contribute to the center’s energy efficiency. A reflective, white roof and stainless steel exterior panels mitigate heat gain from the sun, which in Akron usually requires cooling systems to run 10 months out of the year. Where daylight was preferred to illuminate the interior, specially tinted triple-pane windows provide similar heat control, and reflective light shelves within the facility maximize the light’s luminosity by bouncing it off the ceilings. The Bridgestone building has native plants and rain gardens in its landscaping to filter water on-site.
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Malaysian coconuts, so while most filters are class-specific with respect to the chemicals they can remove from the air, those in the GreenFumeHood can purify the air of any chemical that might be used in the Bridgestone labs. Forecasted to last up to two years before replacement, the filters were tested on more than 300 chemicals in the trial hoods and have outlived that projection by a year, which is a positive counterweight to the filter’s $3,000 replacement cost. The coconut composition also provides excellent odor absorption, a welcome relief to employees and the neighboring community who, in the past, dealt with the unpleasant smell some of the chemistry labs emitted.
automated HVAC
Lab Efficiency
W ith a carbon footprint that is 82 percent smaller than Bridgestone’s old facility, the new center employs a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system, an automated, highly efficient alternative to traditional HVAC methods. In each room, a sensor responds to changes in temperature, so if a packed conference room is getting stuffy while a corner office looses heat, the excess heat from the conference room can be delivered to the office and refrigerated air refreshes the conference room. “It’s about as efficient as a geothermal system, but with less moving parts and less repair,” says Matthew Sutter, partner and CEO at SoL Harris/Day. The system is preferred for retrofits as well because foundations have already been laid, and geothermal may no longer be an option. The solution is especially well-suited for tight spaces where its quarter- and half-inch piping mitigates the space issues caused by traditional HVAC ducts.
The technical center’s fume hoods
Going Ductless
T he saying “less is more” couldn’t be more appropriate for the GreenFumeHood, whose ductless design makes it versatile for lab technicians and architects alike. As long as an electrical outlet is within reach, the hoods can function anywhere and be repositioned to respond to laboratory conditions. For Sutter, less space from floor to ceiling was needed to conceal typical configurations of the metal ventilation system, allowing him to eliminate a foot of building materials and their cost across the laboratories.
cost the same as a traditional ducted system and have a collective savings of $70,000 per year in energy costs. Traditional ducted hood systems exhaust filtered air and introduce fresh air from the outdoors, the latter of which usually undergoes some form of conditioning to bring it to room temperature. This process of pushing, pulling, heating, and cooling is greatly reduced by the GreenFumeHood’s self-contained air-recycling system, cutting Bridgestone’s HVAC energy consumption in half. gb&d
The technical center’s GreenFumeHood from Erlab costs the same as a traditional ducted system and has a collective savings of $70,000 per year in energy costs.
INNER WORKINGS
The building is divided into lab and office spaces with a daylit atrium connecting the two distinct programs.
fter energy modeling, Bridgestone A and the design team chose to use extensive windows in the front of the building but to avoid using them on the south faรงade.
ABOVE Employees requested daylight in their new offices, so the architecture firm incorporated triple-paned windows throughout the building.
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Situated in front of the Moorhead Environmental Complex, the rain garden retention basin uses native plants to reduce downstream flooding and filter runoff pollution, protecting nearby rivers and streams. Rain gardens also help recharge local groundwater and improve water quality and provide habitat for birds, butterflies, and beneficial insects that eliminate pest insects and suppress mosquito breeding.
INNER WORKINGS
Moorhead Environmental Complex
At the Stroud Water Research Center, one-ofa-kind bioengineering projects are par for the course. Its newest addition, a water-treatment facility that is sustainable both in process and structure, follows suit.
PROJECT
GREEN
Location Avondale, PA Size 16,000 ft2 Completed 2012 Program Research facility
Certification LEED Platinum Building Water Composting and low-flow toilets, low-flow automatic faucets Storm Water Green roof, rain gardens, rooftop rainwater capture, infiltration trench, pervious pavers Wastewater On-site wetland wastewater treatment Energy Rooftop solar panels, geothermal heating and cooling Materials Local materials, native, drought-resistant plants
TEAM
PHOTOS: HALKIN ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY
CLIENT Stroud Water Research Center Architect M2 Architecture Construction Management Nason Construction Environmental Engineer Meliora Environmental Design MEP Engineer Bruce E. Brooks & Associates Structural Engineer Ann Rothmann Structural Engineering Landscape Architect Andropogon Associates Wastewater System Designer Biohabitats Lighting Designer David Nelson & Associates Owner’s Representative Consilience
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The LEED Platinum Moorhead Environmental Complex at the Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, Pennsylvania, treats and uses water in a way that closely mimics nature. Its design helps protect nearby White Clay Creek, a National Wild and Scenic River, and acts as a teaching vehicle and a model for others to follow. “[Stroud director] Bern Sweeney was the main driver of this whole thing,” says Tom Nason, CEO of Nason Construction. “He had a vision for a sustainable building to go with his mission of fresh water stewardship, and that’s really what drove us.” Detailed below are the finer intricacies of the project that so elegantly exemplifies its mission. By Julie Schaeffer
Managing Storm Water
Rain Gardens
B ecause the complex is in a rural area with no connection to city water and sewer systems, it needs to supply and manage its own water, and it begins on the roof of the building. A 14- by 30-foot green roof, planted with 12 species chosen for their drought-resistant qualities, absorbs water. The water that falls on the rest of the metal roof is routed into a 6,000-gallon cistern buried in the ground, which is used for flushing toilets and in environmental chemistry labs.
Keeping with the Moorhead com-
plex’s mission, the team designed an integrated landscape system that manages water like the native forest. Rainwater flows off the landscape into connected rain gardens, seminatural depressions planted with native plants located throughout the complex that allow water to infiltrate into the ground instead of running off into the nearby creek (1). Parking lot water is routed into an underground infiltration trench, and excess water flows to surface rain gardens at a lower elevation and then, if necessary, through level spreaders into forested wetlands. Finally, walkways made with pervious pavers are laid on a thick bed of gravel for additional water storage and infiltration (2).
Below the idyllic Moorhead complex, subsurface-flow wetland cells treat septic wastewater by moving it through a gravel medium where plants are rooted to remove sediments and pollutants such as nitrogen and excess organic carbon.
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INNER WORKINGS Moorhead Environmental Complex
“While [the wetland wastewater treament system] may appear to be a handsome planting bed, it is actually a serious piece of bioengineering.” Muscoe Martin, M2 Architecture
Solely Geothermal
Restroom Reductions
Wetland Wastewater
The center installed its first geo-
The complex has two types of
thermal wells in 1996. With the construction of the new building, it added eighteen 450-foot-deep wells to the existing 28 wells (each 300 feet deep). In the process, the team installed a new in-ground, closedloop system filled with propylene glycol and tied the new system into the older one. “The new building is one-hundred percent heated and cooled by geothermal, so the only utility bills we receive are electricity bills, which run pumps, fans, and compressors associated with the HVAC units,” says Stroud vice president Dave Arscott, who adds that the new system also improved the heating and cooling performance of older buildings.
toilets. Two Clivus Multrum waterless composting toilets are connected to the education classroom with liquid waste flowing into storage tanks that eventually route waste into the complex’s wetland wastewater treatment system. More than 90 percent of solid waste is converted to water and carbon dioxide with a high-carbon bulking material, such as bark mulch or sawdust, and redworms. The process leaves a small amount of dry material similar to topsoil that is removed by a licensed handler. Four other staff toilets are flushed using water from the rooftop rainwater system with electronics automatically switching to the groundwater system when the rainwater cistern is empty.
T he complex received a $239,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to help construct a wetland wastewater treatment system, which is one of the first of its kind in Pennsylvania (3). “While it may appear to be a handsome planting bed, it is actually a serious piece of bioengineering,” explains M2 Architecture’s Muscoe Martin. All effluence is routed to a septic tank, which holds solids and passes liquids through a wetland designed to remove excess nitrogen and carbon compounds, a vital step given the complex’s location adjacent to a protected National Wild and Scenic River. Also minimizing the wastewater’s impact, the water is injected into the ground via a drip-irrigation field, which is less invasive to construct than a traditional drain field. gb&d
The Moorhead center’s expansive spaces are 100% heated and cooled by its geothermal system. Stroud has been using geothermal systems since 1996. With the Moorhead Environmental Complex, it added 18 new wells.
Solar panels
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Wetland treatment cell
Rain barrel
Rain garden
Solar shading
PHOTOS: HALKIN ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Green roof
Congratulations to Stroud Water Research Center and the Moorhead Environmental Complex team on achieving LEED Platinum. “We chose Nason to build the Moorhead Environmental Complex because of their outstanding track record and unwavering dedication to getting things done right.” – Bernard W. Sweeney, Ph.D., President, Stroud Water Research Center
“Nason Construction is proud to have built the Moorhead Environmental Complex, which reflects Stroud Water Research Center’s mission to advance knowledge and stewardship of fresh water through research, education, and restoration.” – Tom Nason, CEO, Nason Construction
Photo by: ©Halkin | Mason Photography
www.str oudcenter.org
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green building & design
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List
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Houston Grows Up The city attracts employers downtown and the greener ideals that come with them
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Discussion board
What’s the most effective green-building program you’ve seen?
88 What can we green by greenbuild?
How the Philly chapter of the USGBC brought the conference to the people
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Greenbuild 2013
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As a city without zoning regulations, Houston spent the past century sprawling outward.
Houston
By Benjamin van Loon
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Grows Up Now, with changes driven by forward-thinking public and private leaders, the metropolis is expanding upward.
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FEATURES HOUSTON Grows Up
SPRAWLING 628 CITY
Square miles in Houston’s city limits, twice as large as New York City
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hen people say that everything is bigger in Texas, they’re talking about Houston. As a city, it’s huge. By population, Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States with 2.1 million residents. By area, its 628 square miles nearly doubles New York City and triples Chicago. By economy, it has one of the healthiest in the nation, managing to grow even in the wake of the 2008 recession by creating more than 250,000 jobs between 2010 and 2013 and exporting approximately $300 billion in locally produced goods and services in that same time. But Houston is also a city of sprawl. Historically, Houston has never had or imposed any formal zoning regulations, which has lent to the city’s tendency to expand outward rather than upward, and it has also limited the development of the same kind of city-center that many American cities take for granted. Houston does have areas of concentrated activity—downtown, Texas Medical Center, Greenspoint, Greenway Plaza—but there is less intercourse between these
Annise Parker
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739
72%
3,639
20.6%
Miles in Houston’s highway system
Of Houston residents drive alone to work
People per square mile in Houston (Chicago’s population density is 11,880)
Increase in daytime population due to commuters (Chicago increases 4.6%)
axes than there would be if they were developed under a more unified zoning system. As such, the automobile is Houston’s preferred mode of transportation with 72 percent of its residents driving alone to work using the metropolitan area’s 739 miles of highways. Although Houston’s absence of zoning regulations reflects a tendency toward municipal self-reliance (a version of Texas’s often caricatured libertarianism), it is precisely this autonomy that has
supported the City of Houston’s continued growth and vitality while legitimizing the roles that economic innovation and environmental consciousness play in articulating a sustainable vision for the city in the 21st century. In other words, Houston has power—power it can choose to use to green itself. “There is an emerging recognition that Houston has the building blocks to be one of the most innovative, livable, equitable, and sustainable places in the
“There is an emerging recognition that Houston has the building blocks to be one of the most innovative, livable, equitable, and sustainable places in the nation.” Annise Parker, Mayor, City of Houston
FEATURES
GREENER CITY
50%
207
20
$60m
1,900 ft2
Of Houstonians now prefer living in mixed-use areas
LEED buildings in Houston
City-owned LEED buildings to date
Has been spent by the city to reduce building energy use
Size of a Row on 25th townhome (2010 average was 2,849 ft2)
nation,” says Houston mayor Annise Parker. “We are working to expand our leadership from oil and gas alone to sustainable industries focused on renewable energy, energy efficiency, green buildings, electric cars—the list goes on.” Houston’s growth can’t be attributed to one single factor, but the recessionproof reliability of some of the strongest industries in the city—from health care to oil and gas to aeronautics—has been a major component for fueling regional job creation and economic stamina. Unemployment remained low in Houston through the recession and became one of the city’s brightest selling points, encouraging job-seekers to relocate to the city (Houston issued nearly 74,000 single-family home construction permits between 2010 and 2013), likewise contributing to changing attitudes regarding the way the growing urban population relates to itself and the environment. These changing attitudes are reflected in research data from Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, which has been measuring economic and demographic transformations in Houston for the past 32 years. As of 2013, more than 50 percent of those surveyed
“People want more than just a job—they want to work for an innovative company in a green building and live close to where they work, eat, shop, and play.” Laura Spanjian, Sustainability Director, City of Houston
preferred living in areas of mixed development versus single-family residential areas. This is up from 47 percent in 2007, and according to Houston’s sustainability director Laura Spanjian, who left the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission in 2010 for the position, this is suggestive of a more comprehensive sea change. “Over the past five years especially, there has been a lot of focus not only on the economy, but quality-of-life issues as well,” she says. “There has been a concerted effort to make our city more sustainable and more attractive. People want more than just a job—they want to work for an innovative company in a green building and live close to where they work, eat, shop, and play.”
Laura Spanjian
FAR LEFT Houston mayor Annise Parker has been a driving force in greening the city. CENTER Houston’s Buffalo Bayou area is a 10-square-mile brownfield redevelopment project, creating a front yard for the city with a collection of parks, walkways, and waterways. LEFT Houston’s Green Building Resource Center is LEED Gold certified, one level higher than the Silver required by the city’s Green Building Resolution. It is one of 20 government-owned, LEED-certified buildings. ABOVE Laura Spanjian left San Francisco for Houston.
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“[People] see these pocket neighborhoods, these neighborhoods are affordable, and you get a critical mass of people thinking in a new way. It changes markets.” Matt Ford, Co-Owner, Shade House Development One development that favors urban walkability and community over more traditional suburban ideals can be found in Houston Heights, a historical residential district roughly ten minutes northwest of downtown Houston. Designed and built by Shade House Development, a husband-and-wife-owned team founded in Houston in 2005, Row on 25th is a nine-building row-house project
that first broke ground in 2010, with the final two homes being completed this past spring. By pairing a streamlined, repeating architectural style in the homes with a heavy emphasis on connectivity, Row on 25th is representative of Houston’s evolving urbanism. “Every time we come out of a recession, the environment is different,” says Shade House coowner Matt Ford. “People keep evolving, things keep changing. There are a lot of new people coming to Houston, and they come with their ideas. They see these pocket neighborhoods, these neighborhoods are affordable, and you get a critical mass of people thinking in a new way. It changes markets.” The various green strategies of Row on 25th—foam insulation, natural landscaping, high-efficiency HVAC, reclaimed wooden flooring—further complement these evolving ideals. Ford, a long-time Houston Heights resident, sees a lot of homes being built in Greek Revivalist and Creole architectural styles and sought instead to build something forward-thinking that both respected the neighborhood and emphasized the opti-
LEFT Started as a pilot program in May 2012, Houston B-Cycle expanded to a total 21 stations in April 2013 due to increased funding and interest.
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mism of changing lifestyle attitudes. “I think there was some trepidation when we were starting this project, but there was also a lot of confidence that we had made the right move,” Ford says. With Row on 25th complete, Shade House is currently breaking ground on a similar development across the street, reinforcing the need and receptivity of intentionally planned residential micro-communities within Houston’s greater developmental context. In turn, this tendency leads to higher population concentration and a transformed market and creates interest for projects and programs that cater to these new population densities, such as the Houston Drives Electric and Houston B-cycle (bike-share) programs. The electric-car program is a municipal and public “electric vehicle readiness initiative” that brought 40
PHOTOS: JACK THOMPSON
FEATURES HOUSTON GROWS UP
FEATURES
Project LOCATION Houston Size 1,900 ft2 per home Completed 2013 Program Residential
TEAM General Contractor Shade House Development Architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen Developer Holden Shannon
GREEN CERTIFICATION Not applicable Location Historical district, walkability to restaurants and shops Landscapes Native grasses in common area Flooring All-wood with reclaimed materials circa 1880s Finishes No trim detailing, low-VOC finishes Systems Tankless water heaters, high-efficiency appliances and HVAC
Shade House Development is building a new kind of Houston housing that’s more sustainable but still fits what many Houstonians want: single-family homes. The Row on 25th development is in walking distance to shops and restaurants, creating an urban environment outside the city’s central business area, much like the neighborhoods of New York City and Chicago.
FEATURES HOUSTON GROWS UP
electric and plug-in vehicles to the city fleet and has saved 35,000 gallons of fuel annually. B-cycle stationed 200 bikes and 21 service kiosks in downtown Houston and its adjacent neighborhoods. “Our population is getting younger and more diverse,” Spanjian says. “Young people want to live close to where they work, and they want alternative transportation options, including more rail, BRT (bus rapid transit), and biking trails. The city is responding with 38 miles of rail to open in 2014, a just announced new BRT line, the launch of Houston bike share, and the passage of the Bayou Greenway, which will add 300 miles of new trails.”
million square feet to reach a 20-percent energy reduction by 2020. Houston has already dedicated $60 million to energy efficiency by helping its 297 city facilities achieve energy-use reductions of 30 percent and saving more than 22 million kilowatt-hours per year. Houston also has launched the Houston Green Office Challenge. This program orients more than 400 program participants to benefit from Houston’s Energy Efficiency Incentive Program while inviting building owners and managers to educate and improve their collective environmental performance. Presently, Houston ranks seventh on the
Houston ranks 5th on the USGBC’s list of cities with the most LEED-certified buildings, eight of which are Platinum, including BG Group Place, a project that represents Houston’s future as a denser, more vertical city. Aside from some of these communityand transit-oriented sustainable programs, it is Houston’s building-related efforts that perhaps best emphasize the city’s relationships with its business partners and the way these relationships, in turn, allow the city to articulate the benefits of sustainability. The City of Houston has adopted a Green Building Resolution, which sets a target of LEED Silver certification for all new construction and retrofit projects. Thus far, the city has completed 20 LEED-certified projects, with eight more on the way. Houston is also a community partner in the Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge, committing 30
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EPA’s list of Energy Star-rated buildings (175) and fifth on the USGBC’s list of LEED-certified buildings (207), eight of which are LEED Platinum certified, including the new BG Group Place tower, completed in 2011, a project that represents Houston’s future as a denser, more vertical city. At 46 stories, BG Group Place is the tallest building constructed in Houston in 23 years, and it capitalizes on proximity to transit options, such as Houston’s nascent Metro light-rail system, to support its sustainable cause. Designed by Pickard Chilton architects, the building draws its name from its lead tenant, BG Group, a British multinational oil and
gas company. The lead developer of the tower is Hines Development, which also is headquartered in Houston and began planning BG Group Place in 2006. Hines looked at a group of underused buildings in the downtown business district as a prime opportunity to create an office center that was simultaneously iconic, sustainable, and accessible. “Houston, as a city, seems to be tending toward sustainability,” says Adam Rose, the general property manager from Hines Development at BG Group Place. “We understand that when we build a tower in Houston, or in any community, we are leaving a legacy. We hope that each will be an example of the best in all of us and certainly sustainable.” BG Group Place’s most apparent sustainable features are also its most architectural. Described by some locals as “The Notch,” the tower features a fivestory, 16,000-square-foot sky garden that begins on the 39th floor and cuts into the vertical form. Horizontal glass and aluminum sunshades flank the curved
FEATURES
Project LOCATION Houston Size 973,072 ft2 Completed 2011 Program Office tower Award Best Tall Building Americas Finalist at the 2012 Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
TEAM The 46-story BG Group Place is the tallest building constructed in Houston in the past 23 years. It sets a precedent for future downtown skyscrapers with its LEED Platinum certification.
CLIENT Hines Development Architect Pickard Chilton Architect of Record Kendall/Heaton Associates Structural Engineer Ingenium MEP Engineer Wylie Consulting Engineers General Contractor D. E. Harvey Builders
GREEN CERTIFICATION LEED Platinum Site Access to light rail, pedestrian tunnel system Exterior Horizontal glass and aluminum sunshades Landscape Five-story rooftop garden Daylight 10-foot ceilings with floorto-ceiling glass
Houston’s past and future meet in BG Group Place. Although the private sector continues to drive development, that development is increasingly denser and more vertical.
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FEATURES HOUSTON Grows up
Houston’s light-rail system started in 1991 with just 7.5 miles of track (the red-outlined part of the map). Now the city has 38 miles of expansion under way and plans to have a total of 73 miles by 2025.
“What will keep Houston on the trajectory upwards is that we’re not just focused on what has made us strong in the past. We’re focused on what is going to make us strong in the future.”
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north and south façades of the building, reducing solar gain, and vertical shades on the west face reduce evening glare. A condensation-recovery system reduces building water demands, and floor-toceiling glass on all floors brings daylight to the tower’s interior spaces, the ground levels of which create nearly 12,000 square feet of mixed-use space, accenting the tower’s intended place-making function. BG Group Place is connected to a Metro light-rail station—its most providential element. Construction on the 7.5-mile light-rail system began in 1991 after nearly 20 years of debate and was officially opened in 2004. Now, it currently has 38 miles of expansion under way, further supporting the city’s efforts toward increased urbanization and density. Historically, Houston has been a healthy city due partly to the strength of its seated industries and partly to civic autonomy and self-reliance. Its economic strength, especially after the 2008 recession, has served to attract a younger and more diverse population that is, in turn, creating a market open to further public
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and private innovations. As evidenced by the work of private entities such as Shade House and Hines and the guidance of the City of Houston, the key is to look ahead for success, rather than trying to recreate what has worked in the past. “What will keep Houston on the trajectory upward is that we’re not just focused on what has made us strong in the past,” Spanjian says. “We’re focused on what is going to make us strong in the future.” gb&d
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A Message from Siemens
Siemens’ performance-based contracts are funded by the energy savings they produce. Our professionals build custom solutions to help you lower your operating expenses. Siemens guarantees zero percent capital expense to you. If savings goals are not met, Siemens pays the difference. And one-hundred percent of excess savings are yours to keep. www.usa.siemens.com/ buildingtechnologies A Message from HARC
HARC—Helping people thrive and nature flourish. HARC is a research hub providing independent analysis on energy, air, and water issues to people seeking scientific answers. They are focused on building a sustainable future that helps people thrive and nature flourish. For more than 20 years, HARC has maintained an extensive partnership with the City of Houston on important sustainability projects involving energy retrofits, clean energy demonstration, air quality, transportation, and water. Today, HARC partners with corporate, government, educational and not-for-profit entities to advance the knowledge and viability of sustainable practices. To learn more, please visit HARCresearch.org.
gbdmagazine.com
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gb&d
november–december 2013
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FEATURES
DISCUSSION BOARD What’s the most effective green-building program you’ve seen? “As much as LEED has been highly influential, certification programs and rating systems are not the top sustainability drivers for the lighting designer. What pushes the ‘sustainability’ of our work the most are energy codes and utility energy incentive programs.” Glenn Heinmiller, Lam Partners, p. 40
Laura Spanjian, City of Houston, p. 76
“HPI-CHPS and Savings by Design are two certifications/ programs that have been a big benefit to the K-12 market. These bring the added benefit of monetary incentives in an economy that pinches every penny and quite often leaves sustainable features on the floor of the valueengineering room.” Nannette Lake, Stafford
“Sustainable Cleveland 2019 has created the benchmark for all US cities to follow with a 10-year initiative engaging people from all walks of life, working together to design and develop a thriving and resilient Cleveland region leveraging its wealth of assets to build economic, social, and environmental well-being for all.”
King Wiese Architects, p. 60
Justin Campbell,
“LEED has triggered the most widespread adoption of sustainable building, increasing the market for sustainable materials and technologies, which brings down cost. But at the same time, programs like Living Building Challenge, AIA 2030, and Net Zero help to set stretch goals, ensuring the market for sustainability is always advancing.”
Abode, p. 41
Anica Landreneau, HOK, p. 16
Read more Discussion Board responses from Jason McLennan, John Martin, and others online at gbdmagazine.com.
PHOTO: ELEAKIS + ELDER PHOTOGRAPHY (nannette lake)
“Municipal greenbuilding programs, like our Houston Green Office Challenge, have been effective because they bring recognition locally to companies making great strides in sustainability. The Green Office Challenge allows us to applaud the efforts of environmentally minded businesses while encouraging them to continue pushing the envelope for greener buildings.”
MORE INFORMATION THE PROGRAMS
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AIA 2030 aia.org
LEED usgbc.org/LEED
Net Zero (certification) living-future.org/netzero
HPI-CHPS (certification) chps.net
Living Building Challenge living-future.org/lbc
Sustainable Cleveland 2019 sustainablecleveland.org
Houston Green Office Challenge houstongoc.org
Savings by Design savingsbydesign.com
november–december 2013
gbdmagazine.com
THE ON LY APPROV LEED AP STUD ED BY US Y GUIDES
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FEATURES
In an attempt to break Greenbuild out of the convention center and set the stage for a new era of the expo, the Delaware Valley Green Building Council issued a challenge to the people of Philadelphia:
WHAT CAN WE GREEN BY GREENBUILD? By Benjamin van Loon
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waste generators to divert 1,000 (new) tons MSW (cumulative) from landfill/ incineration to composting and/or recycling alternatives. Aelux will help clients reduce their annual energy consumption by over 40,000 MWh. AIA Philadelphia will recruit 30 member firms to join the AIA 2030 Commitment to create carbon-neutral buildings. Alcom Printing pledges to maintain recycling at 98% of its waste stream and remain landfill free and to continue to partner with paper mills that replant at a four-to-one ratio. This equates to 700,000+ new trees because Alcom customers choose print. Andropogon will measure the economic, social, and environmental contributions of three significant, public, institutional projects in Philadelphia and publish its results at Greenbuild 2013. Atkin Olshin Schade Architects will begin every project, regardless of pursuit of green certification, with a charrette to maximize the environmental and cultural sustainability of each project. The APA-PA Chapter SE Section will educate over 1,000 people and organizations in the Delaware Valley about sustainability through events, programs, and its section blog. AWeber Communications, Inc. will complete a LEED Silver- or Gold-certified corporate headquarters by the end of 2013. The BarberGale Group will reduce its carbon footprint and energy usage by downsizing its office space 72% (3,800 square feet to 1,060 square feet) and renovating and moving into an existing barn. Barry Isett and Associates will improve the overall MPG of its 25 vehicle fleet by 20% through a Prius for Clunkers program where older, inefficient vehicles are replaced with hybrid vehicles. Bentley Systems, Inc., pledges to reduce CO2 emissions by providing employees a TransitChek/RideEco benefit and installing electric-vehiclecharging stations at several US offices. Bergmann Associates will have designed and certified over 60 LEED Buildings for its clients and a Net-Zero Prototype Store. BFW Group will encourage 100% of its clients to utilize sustainable building practices in their new construction, rehabilitation, or retrofit projects. BluPath will complete the design of a rowhouse retrofit to Passive House standards for Habitat for Humanity of Philadelphia. Bohlin Cywinski Jackson will build a 500-square-foot demonstration green roof and wall at its office on the 13th floor of 123 S. Broad Street. Brandywine Realty Trust will achieve 75% recycling and green cleaning, 75 Energy Star Buildings with 14.5M square feet of space, 900,000 square feet of LEED-certified space, and reduce electric costs vs. 2010 by $1.5M+. BuLogics will enable cost-effective retrofit installation and management of wireless energy-saving solutions in 10,000 multidwelling apartment units. Camphill Village Kimberton Hills pledges to permanently pledge 345 acres to open space, provide organic/ biodynamic produce to at least 150 families, utilize a wetlands wastewater system for five buildings and upcycle 200 clothing items into rugs. Carole Felton Communications will provide 50+ hours of marketing and branding consultation on sustainability on behalf of Main Line GO Green. The Center for Environmental Policy of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University will have hosted over 175 sustainability-related public education programs since its inception in 2004. CertainTeed and Saint-Gobain pledge to avoid consuming 10,000 gallons of gasoline by reducing employee commuting to its Valley Forge and Blue Bell, PA, locations. The Chemical Heritage gb&dFoundation will engage 5,000 visitors with local environmental change via an exhibit and programs.
ing standards for all residential and mixed-use projects receiving city funding and pledges to improve Philadelphia’s economy and environment by empowering businesses, universities, and nonprofits to achieve substantial reductions in their environmental impacts and energy bills. Clarke Caton Hintz will lower its energy and resource consumption and will bolster the staff’s knowledge of sustainability to ensure that the firm’s pledge extends well beyond the next year. CREW – Lehigh Valley will create a maze with sustainable materials and native plantings for the children of Grace Montessori School in Allentown, PA. County Line Nurseries, Inc. will provide education on sustainable landscapes to reach 1,000 students in the Delaware Valley. CPM Housing Group will deliver 1,000 units of green and affordable housing. DVGBC – Delaware Branch will engage the State of Delaware General Assembly in providing and supporting legislation to create a Delaware Green Building Commission. Dilworth Paxson, LLP will install aesthetic and size-appropriate recycling bins in each conference room, coffee service area, and copy/work station, encourage public transportation and car pooling, and lower shades to reduce energy use. Duffield Associates will incorporate and document sustainability considerations on 100% of its soil, water, and environmental client projects. DVL Automation will deploy ZeroWire energy harvesting integration to rescue 32% energy use while averting 100 miles of copper wiring and 12,000 batteries, moreover enriching occupant comfort and health. DVL pledges to assist 12 data centers achieve LEED certification and save a total of 1 million watts of electrical energy, which equates to turning off all the lights in the Comcast Tower. ES Design will initiate a dialogue with clients on sustainable solutions for storm-water and site design issues. ECOtelligent Design will train over 4,000 professionals on proper LEED integration strategies, will consult on over 40 LEED projects, 15 LEED certified, and one LEED track project in the Middle East. Energy Coordinating Agency will weatherize 3,220 homes, train 300 men and women, rate 250 homes as Energy Star or LEED certified, improve storm-water management in 200 homes, and earn LEED Gold certification for its Training Center. EwingCole will have over 4 million square feet of LEED projects, will increase its staff of LEED professionals to 100, will create a test-bed for energy and daylight software, and will develop a post-occupancy energy database. Fessenden Hall, Inc. pledges to install 1,208 solar panels at its facility, producing 256,140 kWh/year and eliminating 84 tons/year of CO2 emissions. Forbo Flooring Systems will have transparent, third-party verified Environmental Product Declarations for all its flooring products. Gilbane Building Company will continue to promote and educate our clients, contractors, and employees about the benefits of sustainable design and building practices. Gilmore and Associates, Inc. will advocate green infrastructure options to 50 municipalities and municipal authorities as sustainable alternatives to historically gray infrastructure decisions. The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce will hosts corporate responsibility and sustainability educational programs for its 5,000 member organizations and the general public. Greenable pledges to get green building products specified and used by architects and builders in 20 new, local green building projects. Greensaw Design and Build will use reclaimed or salvaged materials in 100% of their building projects. Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia will build to LEED Silver standards on all
plement a plan to educate its clients about energy efficiency and its impact on existing and historic structures. Harkins Builders will implement a sustainability and recycling program/ policy throughout its organization. Heckendorn Shiles Architects will utilize public transit on 45% of daily commutes and design office space for over 175 new SEPTA commuters at its Ambler Boiler House transit-oriented development. Hersha Hospitality Group will benchmark and track the energy use of 80+ hotels in Energy Star Portfolio Manager. The International Interior Design Association pledges to educate over 250 aspiring design students in sustainable design practices. In Posse will have completed two netzero green schools nationally. INTECH pledges to develop waste management plans for all projects that divert at least 75% of construction waste from landfills and will publish material recovery data from all projects annually. iSpring will help five new clients improve sustainability performance by developing comprehensive sustainability metrics, dashboards, and datadriven communications. Jonathan Rose Companies and Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha will eliminate 78,480 annual car trips at the Paso Verde transit-oriented development. Kaiserman Company will reduce energy use across its commercial portfolio by 15% from its 2010 baseline and achieve Energy Star certification for at least four commercial properties. Keating Environmental Management will participate in the design and implementation of 10 LEED for Existing Buildings, renewable-energy, and/or energy-conservation projects. Kitchen and Associates will double the number of its HERS raters, double the number of staff who lead its projects in achieving LEED certification, and equip at least two staff with LEED for Homes accreditation. Knoll, Inc. will reduce the amount of waste landfilled by 5%, taking the East Greenville facility to a greater than 90% landfill avoidance. KO Angotti will source locally manufactured products and materials for every interior design project. KSK Architects Planners Historians, Inc. will use green building standards in the design and construction of nearly 100 affordable, energy-efficient housing units for low- to moderateincome residents. KSS will adopt a Green Specifications Guide for the entire firm to use as projects are developed to ensure the inclusion of sustainable measures regardless of pursuit of LEED certification. Lafayette College will uphold its Energy Policy and implement a Climate Action Plan to reduce its carbon footprint by 20%. The Lehigh Valley Sustainability Network will create a web resource as a platform for communication and collaboration. Liberty Property Trust pledges to certify its 50th LEED building, its 100th Energy Star building, and to deploy smart grid energy optimization/demand response technology in 10 regional buildings. Limeworks.us will have a representative become LEED Green Associate accredited and will develop a clear understanding of how environmentally friendly lime masonry products fit into the equation for receiving LEED credits. Liquid Elements, a division of Stonhard, will work towards sustainable and environmentally friendly manufacturing processes. Lutron Electronics will save an estimated 174 GWh of electricity annually by dimming lights throughout the Philadelphia metro area, equal to electricity for 15,000 homes or eliminating 23,500 cars. MaGrann Associates will certify 1,500 LEED Homes, qualify 5,000 homes under Energy Star programs nationwide, and earn LEED Commercial Interiors
Manko, Gold, Katcher and Fox, LLP will use its legal and engineering staff to partner with its landlord in pursing an Energy Star label for its 400,000 square foot multi-tenant office building. Mannington will continue to exceed its 10 year Department of Energy Better Plants pledge and will pass two significant recycling hurdles: over 21 million pounds VCT recycled and two million pounds recycled regional drywall (6 year total). Mark Group pledges to help 2,013 Delaware Valley homes save energy and money through energy analysis and energy-efficiency home improvements. Metcalfe Architecture and Design will partner with the PA Horticultural Society and local schools to promote the use of sustainable design and growth of green education in schools throughout the Delaware Valley. Meyer Design will certify one LEED Silver assisted-living facility, two LEED-certified commercial interiors projects, and will offset 100% of its building’s energy use with Renewable Energy Credits. PECO will attain LEED certification for 10 of its buildings and save customers more than 1 million MWh with its PECO Smart Ideas programs. PennFuture and Next Great City will continue to organize and help lead the Coalition for an Energy Efficient Philadelphia (CEEP). PA-DE Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects will challenge their members to design 13 Sustainable SITES-qualifying projects. PHS will plant 250,000+ trees regionwide through its Plant One Million project, grow 250,000+ pounds of food through City Harvest, and clean and green 250 acres of vacant land throughout Philadelphia. Pepper Hamilton LLP will install automatic light sensors and use low-VOC products during office renovations, continue to recycle paper, aluminum, tin and plastic, and uphold its sustainability policy. The Philadelphia Chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) will offer two sustainability-focused educational programs per year at chapter meetings and minimize waste and travel impacts from operations. PIDC pledges to deploy an energyefficiency program for Building 101 at The Navy Yard resulting in 30% energy savings; to increase Navy Yard Shuttle ridership to 1,600 rides a day, reducing vehicle use by 10%; and to deploy $3 million in EnergyWorks Loans to projects generating energy savings of 25%. Philadelphia University will have graduated 150 through its Sustainable Design Program. The Philadelphia Water Department will invest $2.4 billion to initiate the largest green storm-water infrastructure program in the nation. The Philadelphia Zoo will complete the Hamilton Family Children’s Zoo and Faris Family Education Center, the first LEED-certified building in a zoo in PA. Philip Rosenau Co. will reduce electric use by 10%, refine fleet routing software and launch a customer equipment recycling program, improving the more than 200MT of GHG emissions it reduced in 2012. Practical Energy Solutions will help school, commercial, and municipal clients get to an aggregate $3 million in energy savings and 30 million pounds in CO2 emission reductions on their projects. Project HOME pledges that all future buildings will be LEED certified and to reduce the environmental impact of its existing buildings. Re:Vision Architecture will have certified 100 LEED Buildings, 20 of them LEED platinum, and neared certification on a Living Building Challenge project. Renewal pledges to work with its integrated project team of architects, engineers, landscape architects, and builders on five new sustainable, farmto-table projects in the Philadelphia region.
vide seven internships that will deliver waste, and g significant educational and practical gas emission experience for aspiring sustainability University professionals. sociates will Resource Dynamics/GreenFEATURES Build- construction ing Education will have trained over versity Place 8,000 people about LEED and green phia’s first pr building and pledges 25 scholarships LEED Platin for Green Advantage Commercial building and Training. to build only Revolution Recovery will have created num for new 85 jobs in the recycling industry. tion and to Roofmeadow will provide enough plans for i green roofs from 2012–2013 through- LEED Platinu out the Delaware Valley to keep 2.5 construction million gallons of storm water out of building. the municipal sewer systems. Urban Ecof Rushforth Solar will heat its building install 250,0 and hot water with no fossil fuels. feet of retrofi Sanderson Architectural will volun- roofs. teer with the borough of Bryn Athyn, Urban Engi PA, to design low-income net-zero make over 10 homes and create its master plan for its social me a sustainable community. mote sustai Sera Engineering will have been in- sign and con volved in the design and submission USA Techno to USGBC of one LEED Silver hospital make En and one LEED Silver academic medi- test kits av cal center. ESCO’s publ Seslia and Company will help its cli- vate facilitie ents achieve $10 million in energy cost the Delawar savings. benchmark a SMP Architects will have designed, energy consu lectured on, written articles about, much as 46% led public tours of, and managed pro- ing machines bono service projects for over 200 ac- Veolia Ener tivities at K-12 green facilities. delphia will Spillman Farmer Architects pledges million to c to reduce their paper consumption district ener by 50% through electronic transfers to 100% co and filing. fueled gree Structure Tone, Inc. will renew its com- reducing car mitment to green building practices sions by 70, by constructing 25 million square feet tons. of LEED-certified projects, diverting W.S. Cumby 5,000 tons of construction and demo- 11 LEED-N lition waste. buildings a Sustainable Oaklyn will support the completion o establishment of Oaklyn’s (NJ) first, for Homes-ce 22-plot community garden. dent housing Tague Lumber will continue to offer recycle 85% continuing education classes to archi- struction wa tects and education seminars to build- ery project a ing professionals about the green practice. building materials available through Weston Sol its six locations. have initia TD Bank will be two years away from struction on reachingits 2015 goal of reducing e m p l o y e e CO2 emissions by one ton per em- LEED-certifie ployee from 2008 levels. office, and Temple University pledges to have at completed least five LEED-certified buildings de- ment of its signed by November 2013. Sustainability The Affordable Homes Group pledg- ment System es to build new and remodel existing The Whart housing to meet or exceed green tive for Glo building standards of the USGBC, ronmental L NAHB, and others. (IGEL) will c The Energy Cooperative will reduce support an i carbon emissions by 16,000 tons by sustainability supplying locally-sourced renewable at the Uni energy to its members. Pennsylvania The Energy Efficient Buildings HUB allow more s will support full-spectrum energy-ef- minor and m ficiency retrofits in five regional com- ics related t mercial buildings. and the en The Food Trust will work to expand ac- IGEL will als cess to and cultivate a lasting appreci- events that ation for fresh, healthy, and local food students to by working with children in 40 school reers in bus gardens throughout the Philadelphia sustainability region. terface with The Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia will re- and NGOs place all current guest room lighting students for to be 100% LED by October 31, 2013. that focus o The Stone House Group pledges to and the envir convert its office to a bottle-free en- Wissahickon vironment; reusable water bottles will Club pledge be given to Stone House Group em- Native” by e ployees and their families. ber planting The Thomas Scattergood Behavioral tree or shru Health Foundation will support in- property to r door recycling efforts, improve storm- ter consump water management practices on site, port our loc and constr¬¬uct a boardwalk with and reduce local materials on the local Tacony use. Creek. Wolfson The Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Wa- pledge of c tershed Partnership will educate service for en and engage 1,000 stakeholders and tal sustaina residents across the watershed about boost the c watershed protection, storm-water provement runoff, and the need for green infra- of several structure through outreach, educa- and boost tion, and projects. –december 2013 businesses. november UJMN Architects + Designers will de- WRT will h velop and implement a Sustainable conversation Practices Plan to increase awareness en and div
ALL THIS… AND MORE.
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FEATURES greenbuild 2013
AT THEIR BEST, industry conferences are the perfect backdrop for rubbing elbows and sharing best practices with your peers. But even when performing at this ideal level, conferences have a tendency toward self-congratulations, which often work against the industry’s best intentions. In an attempt to correct this, and set a new standard for what a green building conference can do, the Delaware Valley Green Building Council (DVGBC), the host chapter for this year’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Philadelphia, launched a challenge to unite the greater community of the Delaware Valley by pledging to “green” itself by November 2013. Written up with language borrowed from the Constitution (“We the people…”), which is geographically apropos, the DVGBC 2013 Challenge is divided into eight straightforward segments, promising that the Delaware Valley, as a people, will “take care of the buildings we have and make them healthier and more efficient; clean our air and unclog our roads; educate ourselves, our clients, and our future designers; build coali-
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tions to make our communities stronger; care more about the materials we make, use, and recycle; reconnect ourselves to our natural environment; aspire to better standards for our homes, hospitals, workplaces, schools, and cultural institutions; [and] challenge ourselves as a design community.” On one hand, these are the fundamental goals of the general green building movement, but the DVGBC devised a way to help the community of the Delaware Valley deliver on these pledges in a practicable, quantifiable way. To coincide with the 20th annual Greenbuild conference, the DVGBC invited sustainable building pledges—tangible goals that could actually be reached over the course of a year—from any businesses in the Delaware Valley community, not just chapter members. Heather Blakeslee, deputy executive director of the DVGBC, says, “As a chapter, we initiated this challenge in May 2012 because we knew that everyone in the city, both in and outside of the green building world, would want to participate in Greenbuild somehow, but outside of attending, there’s not always a way to participate. We wanted to show off the depth and breadth of the sustainability work that has been happening in the Delaware Valley over the past 15 years.” The pledges for the 2013 Challenge are all different and unique to each
What Did They Pledge? As of July 15, the Delaware Valley Green Building Council had received more than 120 pledges (opposite page) from entities in the area to reduce consumption and operate greener businesses. For the full list of pledges, go to dvgbc.org.
individual business. They include goals such as DVL Automation’s deployment of ZeroWire energy-harvesting integration to reduce energy use by 32 percent and averting 100 miles of copper wire and 12,000 batteries; and Forbo Flooring Systems’ goal to use transparent, third-party verified Environmental Product Declarations for its products, and MaGrann Associates’ goal to certify 1,500 LEED Homes and 5,000 Energy Star homes nationwide. The list goes on with pledges from around 120 DVGBCaffiliated companies and organizations, aiming to deliver on these pledges before Greenbuild 2013. One of the keys for mobilizing and publishing this challenge has been through a grassroots network, similar to the one that originally led to the formation of the USGBC and Greenbuild. In addition to inviting the community to participate in the activities and phi-
“What we build is community and connections, and this challenge pledge was a way for us to hit all of those things.” Heather Blakeslee, Delaware Valley Green Building Council gbdmagazine.com
photo: Kevin Kennefick (CHF)
losophies articulated by the USGBC, the DVGBC’s 2013 challenge has also served to publicize Greenbuild, the DVGBC, and the green-building movement in the area in a cost-free, grassroots way. “Once we announced the challenge, some of our members saw the stature of some of the people making pledges—like the City of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Zoo, and so forth—others knew they wanted to be part of what we were doing,” Blakeslee says. “What we build is community and connections, and this challenge pledge was a way for us to hit all of those things.” The idea of positive competition is an integral component of grassroots marketing and largely what has fueled the Delaware Valley’s community response to the DVGBC’s challenge and the DVGBC’s role as a community leader. The challenge has served as a way to highlight and provide visibility for other community organizations, such as the Lehigh Valley Sustainability Network, which is creating a Web platform to encourage communications, or the collaboration between PennFuture and Next Great City, which will cooperatively lead the Coalition for an Energy Efficient Philadelphia. The collaborations inspired by the challenge extend to the built environment with the Jonathan Rose Companies teaming with the Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha to develop Paseo Verde, a transit-oriented development seated on a 1.9-acre site near the Temple University Train Station. The design of the development incorporates energy-efficient building envelopes, green roofs, photovoltaic arrays, and locally sourced materials, and it is seeking LEED for Homes and LEED-ND Platinum certifications. “Jonathan Rose has always been committed to community-serving design and the transformational power of good design within neighborhoods,” Blakeslee says. “This Paseo Verde project is really fantastic because it’s a totally gb&d
new kind of project in Philadelphia. It’s transit oriented, there’s an affordable housing component, and it hits all of the things both designers and city planners want to see.” Paseo Verde is a local project, but the challenge has also attracted pledges from larger international companies such as CertainTeed, a $3 billion subsidiary of Saint-Gobain founded in 1904 and employing roughly 9,700 worldwide. Whereas some organizations have pledged external goals and targets, CertainTeed has instead translated the challenge to
Advanced Enviro Systems will help 75 Energy S waste generators to divert 1,000 (new) square feet o tons MSW (cumulative) from landfill/ feet of LEED incineration to composting and/or re- duce electric FEATURES BuLogics wi cycling alternatives. Aelux will help clients reduce their retrofit insta annual energy consumption by over of wireless e 40,000 MWh. 10,000 multid AIA Philadelphia will recruit 30 mem- Camphill V ber firms to join the AIA 2030 Com- pledges to p mitment to create carbon-neutral acres to open buildings. biodynamic Alcom Printing pledges to maintain families, utili recycling at 98% of its waste stream system for fiv and remain landfill free and to con- 200 clothing tinue to partner with paper mills that Carole Felto replant at a four-to-one ratio. This provide 50+ equates to 700,000+ new trees be- branding con cause Alcom customers choose print. ity on behalf Andropogon will measure the eco- The Center f nomic, social, and environmental con- of the Acade tributions of three significant, public, of Drexel Un institutional projects in Philadelphia over 175 sus and publish its results at Greenbuild education p 2013. tion in 2004. Atkin Olshin Schade Architects will CertainTeed begin every project, regardless of to avoid cons pursuit of green certification, with a gasoline by r charrette to maximize the environ- muting to it mental and cultural sustainability of Bell, PA, loca each project. The Chemic will engage environment and program Philadelphia Zoo The City of Complete the new Hamilton Family agencies, w Children’s Zoo and Faris Family Educaing standard mixed-use tion Center, the first LEED-certified funding and building in a zoo in Pennsylvania, by Philadelphia’ ment by e the end of the year. universities, a substantial re mental impac Clarke Caton Jonathan Rose Companies ergy and res will bolster t Eliminate nearly 79,000 car sustainability trips annually by completing pledge exten the Paseo Verde transit-oriented year. CREW – Leh development project with Asociación maze with su Puertorriqueños en Marcha. native planti Grace Mont town, PA. County Line vide educati Chemical Heritage Foundation scapes to rea Engage 5,000 visitors with local Delaware Val CPM Housing environmental change with exhibits units of green and programs, including this one DVGBC – D by Vaughn Bell that gives visitors a gage the Sta Assembly in p worm’s-eye view of native plants. legislation to Building Com The APA-PA Chapter SE Section will Dilworth Pax educate over 1,000 people and orga- thetic and si nizations in the Delaware Valley about bins in each sustainability through events, pro- service area, grams, and its section blog. encourage p AWeber Communications, Inc. will car pooling, complete a LEED Silver- or Gold-cer- duce energy tified corporate headquarters by the Duffield Ass end of 2013. and docume The BarberGale Group will reduce its erations on 1 carbon footprint and energy usage by environment downsizing its office space 72% (3,800 DVL Automa square feet to 1,060 square feet) and ire energy h renovating and moving into an exist- rescue 32% e ing barn. 100 miles of c Barry Isett and Associates will im- batteries, m prove the overall MPG of its 25 vehicle pant comfort fleet by 20% through a Prius for Clunk- DVL pledges ers program where older, inefficient achieve LEED vehicles are replaced with hybrid total of 1 mill vehicles. ergy, which e Bentley Systems, Inc., pledges to the lights in t reduce CO2 emissions by providing ES Design w employees a TransitChek/RideEco clients on s benefit and installing electric-vehicle- storm-water charging stations at several US offices. ECOtelligent Bergmann Associates will have de- 4,000 profes signed and certified over 60 LEED integration s Buildings for its clients and a Net-Zero over 40 LEED Prototype Store. fied, and one BFW Group will encourage 100% of its Middle East. clients to utilize sustainable building Energy Coo practices in their new construction, re- weatherize 3 habilitation, or retrofit projects. men and wo BluPath will complete the design of Energy Star o a rowhouse retrofit to Passive House storm-water standards for Habitat for Humanity of homes, and e Philadelphia. tion for its Tra Bohlin november Cywinski Jackson will build a EwingCole w 2013 –december 500-square-foot demonstration green square feet o roof and wall at its office on the 13th crease its sta floor of 123 S. Broad Street. to 100, will c
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FEATURES greenbuild 2013
So you don’t get lost in Greenbuild Nation, here’s a list of some of the mustsee innovations you’ll spot among the expo hall booths By Lindsey Howald Patton
ten things TO SEE AT GREENBUILD
GeoEdge by Permaloc With more and more green roofs bursting onto the scene, you need something to keep them nice and tidy. These recyclable aluminum edge-restraints keep plant material exactly where you want it to stay, are easier to install than concrete, and can help get you a few points ahead on the LEED checklist. Booth 812 permaloc.com
Masters in Sustainable Design from Boston Architectural College Join the green-building revolution without having to get off the couch! Well, almost. The Boston Architectural College offers an online Master of Design Studies in Sustainable Design. It’s a lowresidency program—meaning brief periods of intensive study in Boston followed by longer periods of intensive study on the couch—and can be completed in a flexible four semesters. Booth 1627 the-bac.edu
▲ Advocate Lavatory System
▲ GreenFumeHood by Erlab A fume hood has a big job to do in a laboratory, where the device is tasked with funneling toxic gases away from the people using it and the air around them. The GreenFumeHood has a unique air filtration system, so exhaust ducts aren’t necessary—meaning no more atmosphere-harming emissions and far lower energy costs. (See it in action on p. 68.) Booth 2007 greenfumehood.com
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by Bradley Bradley has taken the bragging rights for the first commercial hand-washing system to give you soap, water, and drying all in one sink. Working their way from left to right, customers and patrons never have to make that dripping trip over to the paper-towel dispenser. Less strain on the environment, and no more dangerously slippery floors. Booth 2629 bradleycorp.com
▲ Xlerator Eco by Excel Dryer It might sound like a jet taking off, but that’s how the Xlerator gets the job done. These dryers get hands dry in 10 to 15 seconds and get you LEED points for optimized energy performance to boot. The Eco, first launched in the UK, uses one-third of the wattage of its predecessor, requiring just 500 watts to operate but still drying hands within seconds.
Quantum by Lutron Lutron’s Quantum brings a flexible, ultra-efficient system of lighting controls, window shades, ballasts, and LED drivers under one digital umbrella. There is, indeed, an app for this—Quantum can be managed from your iPad. Scale is no issue; install on one office floor or an entire corporate campus. (See it in action on p. 108.) Booth 3301 lutron.com
Booth 929 exceldryer.com
gbdmagazine.com
▲ Wideck by EPIC Metals Exposed structural steel decks can be striking design features, and EPIC Metals makes six longspan (from 10 feet to 55 feet) profiles in its Wideck family to suit any architect’s needs. Installations include the LEED Gold-certified Sweetwater Sound in Fort Wayne, Indiana (pictured), and the sleek trusses crowning a new Mercedes-Benz dealership in Ontario. Booth 2429 epicmetals.com
▲ eddyGT by Urban Green Energy Wind & Solar Solutions Why not get one foot off the grid by combining the most renewable energy sources around? Urban Green Energy (UGE) combines wind and solar power so both elements are used to generate energy, and the elegant, futuristic blades of UGE’s eddyGT turbines are the most visually distinctive power generator you’ll find anywhere from little Jerseyville, Illinois, to Beijing, China. Booth 2110 urbangreenenergy.com
▼ Isis by Big Ass Fans Named for the Egyptian goddess Isis—who, as far as we can tell from her depictions on ancient mummy caskets, actually had a rather slim derriere—this is a super-sleek small-scale ceiling fan. Choose wingspans of 8, 10, or 12 feet in shining aluminum or wood grain, and save 25 percent on energy costs. Booth 2813 bigassfans.com
▲ BIM 360 Glue by Autodesk BIM 360 Glue eases that harrowing back-andforth between owners, architects, engineers, and builders. The software puts everyone on the same page by storing the latest project model on the cloud, so everyone on the team can review and update anytime, anywhere. It integrates with Navisworks, and add-ins make it easier to use AutoCAD and other authoring applications. photos: JASON STEMPLE (ISIS)
Booth 2237 bim360glue.com
gb&d
Fessenden Hall, Inc. pledges to install lio by 15% fr 1,208 solar panels at its facility, pro- achieve Ener ducing 256,140 kWh/year and elimi- least four com nating 84 tons/year of CO2 emissions. Keating Envi FEATURES Forbo Flooring Systems will have will participa transparent, third-party verified Envi- plementation ronmental Product Declarations for all Buildings, re energy-conse its flooring products. Gilbane Building Company will con- Kitchen and tinue to promote and educate our the number o clients, contractors, and employees the number o about the benefits of sustainable de- ects in achie and equip at sign and building practices. Gilmore and Associates, Inc. will ad- for Homes ac vocate green infrastructure options Knoll, Inc. w to 50 municipalities and municipal waste landfill authorities as sustainable alterna- Greenville fa tives to historically gray infrastructure 90% landfill a decisions. KO Angotti The Greater Philadelphia Chamber factured pro of Commerce will hosts corporate re- every interior sponsibility and sustainability educa- KSK Archite tional programs for its 5,000 member Inc. will use g organizations and the general public. in the design Greenable pledges to get green ly 100 affo building products specified and used housing unit by architects and builders in 20 new, income resid local green building projects. KSS will ad Greensaw Design and Build will use tions Guide reclaimed or salvaged materials in as projects a 100% of their building projects. the inclusio sures regard certification. Lafayette Co Forbo Flooring ergy Policy a Action Plan t Maximize product transparency print by 20%. by using third-party verified The Lehigh V Environmental Product Declarations for work will cre a platform all of its flooring systems. collaboration Liberty Prop tify its 50th Energy Star smart grid mand respon Knoll gional buildin Reduce amount of waste sent to Limeworks.u tive become landfills by five percent, transforming accredited a East Greenville facility to more than 90 understandin percent landfill avoidance. tally friendly fit into the eq credits. Liquid Elem hard, will w and environ CertainTeed & Saint-Gobain facturing pro Reduce employee consumption Lutron Elect mated 174 G of gasoline by 10,000 gallons by ally by dimm encouraging alternative transportation Philadelphia to its Valley Forge and Blue Bell, tricity for 15,0 23,500 cars. Pennsylvania, locations. MaGrann As LEED Homes Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia der Energy S will build to LEED Silver standards on and earn LEED all new construction projects. for its Philade Hanson General Contracting will im- Jersey office plement a plan to educate its clients Manko, Gold about energy efficiency and its impact will use its on existing and historic structures. staff to part Harkins Builders will implement a pursing an E sustainability and recycling program/ 400,000 squ policy throughout its organization. fice building. Heckendorn Shiles Architects will Mannington utilize public transit on 45% of daily its 10 year De commutes and design office space for ter Plants pl over 175 new SEPTA commuters at its significant re Ambler Boiler House transit-oriented million poun development. million poun Hersha Hospitality Group will bench- wall (6 year to mark and track the energy use of Mark Group 80+ hotels in Energy Star Portfolio Delaware V Manager. ergy and m The International Interior Design As- analysis and sociation pledges to educate over 250 improvemen aspiring design students in sustain- Metcalfe Ar able design practices. will partner In Posse will have completed two net- Society and zero green schools nationally. the use of INTECH pledges to develop waste growth of gr management plans for all projects throughout t that divert at least 75% of construction Meyer Desig waste from landfills and will publish Silver assis material recovery data from all proj- LEED-certifie ects annually. projects, and iSpring will help five new clients im- building’s en prove sustainability performance by Energy Credi developing comprehensive sustain- PECO will att ability metrics, dashboards, and data- 10 of its bui driven communications. ers more tha Jonathan Rose Companies and Aso- PECO Smart ciación november Puertorriqueños en Marcha 2013 PennFuture –december will eliminate 78,480 annual car trips continue to o at the Paso Verde transit-oriented Coalition for development. delphia (CEEP
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s to design 13 transfers and filing. ying projects. Structure Tone, Inc. will renew its comtrees region- mitment to green building practices One Million by constructing 25 million square feet FEATURES greenbuild 2013 + pounds of of LEED-certified projects, diverting st, and clean 5,000 tons of construction and demovacant land lition waste. Sustainable Oaklyn will support the l install auto- establishment of Oaklyn’s (NJ) first, use low-VOC 22-plot community garden. renovations, Tague Lumber will continue to offer er, aluminum, continuing education classes to archild its sustain- tects and education seminars to building professionals about the green er of the Con- building materials available through nstitute (CSI) its six locations. bility-focused TD Bank will be two years away from per year at reachingits 2015 goal of reducing CO2 inimize waste emissions by one ton per employee from 2008 levels. operations. y an energy- Temple University pledges to have at uilding 101 at least five LEED-certified buildings den 30% energy signed by November 2013. y Yard Shuttle The Affordable Homes Group pledga day, reduc- es to build new and remodel existing and to deploy housing to meet or exceed green rks Loans to building standards of the USGBC, ergy savings NAHB, and others.
The Philadelphia Navy Yard is being developed by Liberty Property Trust and Synterra Partners into a 21st-century corporate campus where every building must be LEED certified at minimum.
y will have s Sustainable
Liberty Property Trust Certify its 50th LEED building, its Department o initiate the 100th Energy Star building, and install er infrastruc- smart-grid energy optimization and n. demand-response technology in 10 of will complete hildren’s Zoo its regional buildings.
ation Center, building in a
educe electric routing softomer equipm, improving of GHG emis-
Philadelphia Water Department Invest $2.4 million to initiate the largest green storm-water infrastructure ons will help municipal cli- program in the nation.
e $3 million in illion pounds ions on their
Advanced Enviro Systems Help waste generators divert 1,000 new tons of cumulative municipal solid will have certi- waste from landfill and incineration , 20 of them to composting and other recycling red certificang Challenge alternatives.
that all future ertified and to l impact of its
rk with its inof architects, chitects, and ainable, farmPhiladelphia
The Energy Cooperative will reduce carbon emissions by 16,000 tons by supplying locally-sourced renewable energy to its members. The Energy Efficient Buildings HUB a-based sus- will support full-spectrum energy-effirm, will pro- ficiency retrofits in five regional comat will deliver mercial buildings. and practical The Food Trust will work to expand acsustainability cess to and cultivate a lasting appreciation for fresh, healthy, and local food reen Build- by working with children in 40 school trained over gardens throughout the Philadelphia EED and green region. scholarships The Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia will reCommercial place all current guest room lighting to be 100% LED by October 31, 2013. have created The Stone House Group pledges to convert its office to a bottle-free enndustry. vide enough vironment; reusable water bottles will 013 through- be given to Stone House Group emto keep 2.5 ployees and their families. water out of The Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation will support indoor ems. t its building recycling efforts, improve storm-water management practices on site, and sil fuels. l will volun- constr¬¬uct a boardwalk with local f Bryn Athyn, materials on the local Tacony Creek. ome net-zero The Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Waster plan for a tershed Partnership will educate and engage 1,000 stakeholders and ave been in- residents across the watershed about d submission watershed protection, storm-water Silver hospital runoff, and the need for green infraademic medi- structure through outreach, education, and projects. l help its cli- UJMN Architects + Designers will den energy cost velop and implement a Sustainable Practices Plan to increase awareness ve designed, and reduce the firm’s energy conles about, led sumption, water usage, waste, and 2013 greenhouse gas emissions. –december aged pro-bo-november ver 200 activi- University Place Associates will complete construction of 2.0 University s.
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redress its own sustainability efforts. “CertainTeed actually looked inward for the pledge, asking what they can do differently about how they operationalize their work,” Blakeslee says. “This means that they’ve encouraged more commuting and made policies around that. And
and culture community. There are a lot of ties between the arts and the sustainable communities that make this region especially unique.” Even with so much support, Blakeslee says that a big part of the challenge has been aggregating and demonstrating its
“Even with the first 120 pledges that have come in, it reflects billions of dollars of investment in the region, hundreds of thousands of tons of waste kept out of landfills and kilowatt-hours saved.” Heather Blakeslee, Delaware Valley Green Building Council
because they’re a big company, even though this is a small change, it can still result in 10,000 gallons of gasoline being saved over the course of a year.” In addition to actual built-project pledges, such as Keating Environmental Management’s pledge to help implement 10 LEED-EB projects or Mission First Housing Group’s pledge to deliver 1,000 green and affordable housing units, the Chemical Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit organization, will be curating an arts exhibit showcasing work from artists who have visualized or depicted changes in environmental growth or degradation. “This kind of exhibit is a great tie-in for what Greenbuild can be for a city,” Blakeslee says. “People are coming here, to Philadelphia, and they’re not only seeing our sustainable work, but our vibrant and robust arts
impacts to a regional, national, and international audience. “Even with the first 120 pledges that have come in, it reflects billions of dollars of investment in the region, hundreds of thousands of tons of waste kept out of landfills and kilowatthours saved,” she says. “The impacts are huge, and we want everyone to celebrate the work they’re doing and for everyone to see that it’s being achieved as a collective whole.” Although it remains to be seen if the DVGBC’s challenge to its members and connected communities will be repeated for future Greenbuild conferences by other regional USGBC chapters, the positive responses and tangible goals articulated in the 2013 Challenge set a high bar for what an industry conference can do to affect change beyond the ticket table. gb&d gbdmagazine.com
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november–december 2013 GRNBUILD_1-3pg.indd 1
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List 98
live
Private residences at Hotel Georgia
A green addition to the Vancouver skyline
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Austin Residence
106
The Kensington
108
work
Four firms collaborate for LEED Platinum
114
Santa Monica Animation Studio
Complete with an innovative golf course Building for Boston’s residential boom
Jones Lang Lasalle Philadelphia Offices
An open, wood-filled workspace
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Dollar General Distribution Center
Surprising results for a logistics facility
Play
118
M&T Bank STadium
Recycling and efficiency drive a renovation
122
NYC Lifeguard and comfort stations
Garrison Architects’ hurricane-proof design
124
Nashville Music City Center
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Representing the city and sustainability
november–december 2013
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The Private Residences at Hotel Georgia
spa c e S L I V E
IBI/HB Architects
Vancouver’s skyline evolves with smart, passive-solar design Interview by Julie Schaeffer
U
nless tragedy strikes, a skyline isn’t changed overnight. For Vancouver, the recent addition of what is now its second-tallest tower took almost 10 years. The Private Residences at Hotel Georgia, at 48 stories and 515 feet, is beat only by the 62-story, 659-foot-tall Living Shangri-La. Architect Alan Woolf of IBI/HB Architects explains the Private Residences’ inspiration, the adjacent historic hotel, and the challenges of designing a green building of this size.
gb&d: What was the impetus for the Private Residences at Hotel Georgia and how did your firm get involved? Alan Woolf: The project was first initiated about a decade ago. A firm of architects prepared a schematic design that received much publicity for its
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innovative design and contribution to the urban fabric, but it lay idle for several years. Thereafter, the developer approached our office (now IBI/HB Architects) to design the tower and another firm, Endall Elliot Associates, to design the restoration of the adjacent Hotel Georgia.
gb&d: Tell me about the hotel, which, in a way, was key to this project because of its significance. Woolf: The historic 12-story Hotel Georgia—located at 801 West Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver—opened in 1927 and is a registered cultural heritage site in Canada. As a result, the exterior of the building and some of the interior was protected by the City of Vancouver. There was a tremendous effort put into the restoration with the size of the upgrade. Toronto-based design firm Munge Leung was responsible for the interior design. gb&d: What went into the design of the new tower? gbdmagazine.com
The new condo skyscraper in Vancouver has photovoltaic cells on the exterior curtainwall and is shaped to provide natural shading to lower floors.
SPACES LIVE WORK PLAY
“While the buildings are architecturally distinct, an interesting design arose from the juxtaposition.” Alan Woolf, IBI/HB Architects
PROJECT Location Vancouver, BC Size 368,270 ft2 Completed 2013 Program Residential apartments and condos
TEAM ARCHITECT IBI/HB Architects Client Delta Land Development Construction Manager Scott Construction Mechanical Engineer Cobalt Engineering Structural Engineer Glotman Simpson Consulting Engineers Electrical Engineer Nemetz (S/A) and Associates Landscape Architect Perry & Associates Interior Design Mitchell Freedland Design
GREEN CERTIFICATION Not applicable Site Urban renovation Energy Passive solar shading, photovoltaic cells, geothermal heating and cooling Water Rooftop water tank, low-flow water fixtures Materials Low-VOC paints and adhesives, energy-efficient lighting
Woolf: The residential tower includes everything you would expect of a modern multiuse building: 156 units of living space, office space, and underground parking, and the look is modern. One of the most notable design elements stems from its use of passive solar shading. The floors are cantilevered outward from a set floor-plate dimension as the building rises from levels 14 through 38. So the building is inclining outward and providing some degree of passive shading. Then, at level 38, it reaches its maximum floor plate and starts to recede inward as it rises upward for the last 10 floors. gb&d: The two buildings look so different visually, so how did you connect the modern elements of the tower to the historic look of the hotel? Woolf: The buildings are [physically] connected. Eight floors of the parking for the residential tower extend underneath the hotel’s lower floors. On some of the upper levels, there are interconnections between the residences and the hotel.
That was important because residents of the tower can use certain hotel services, such as the spa and swimming pool, located on the fourth level. On that level, a horizontal interconnection between the residential tower and the hotel leads into a magnificent hotel-roof garden bistro, designed by Endall Elliot. It’s like an urban oasis surrounded by large downtown buildings. So while the buildings are architecturally distinct, an interesting design arose from the juxtaposition of the two buildings. gb&d: What were some of the challenges you faced because of the enormous size of the tower? Woolf: In the early construction phases, there were huge challenges to the eightlevel excavation, as the site was surrounded on two sides by existing hotel buildings, on the third side by Howe Street, and on the fourth side by a narrow lane and a high-rise office building. It was a shoehorn site. The building fills most of the footprint, and it was another
“One of the most notable design elements stems from its use of passive solar shading.” Alan Woolf, IBI/HB Architects challenge for the construction crew to bring materials to the site and crane them to the various floor plates. The 2010 Winter Olympics also presented some challenges through temporary street closures, which slowed delivery of heavy materials. gb&d: Did you go for LEED certification for the tower? Woolf: No, but it was built with several green features. There is passive solar shading, as noted. Photovoltaic cells on the exterior curtainwall, which is south facing, return a certain amount of energy to the building grid, powering gbdmagazine.com
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motorized blinds and other things. The building incorporates geothermal wells, which contribute to heating and cooling. There is a rooftop water tank, which, when combined with the swimming pool on level four, acts as a possible backup fire suppression. There are low-flow water fixtures and energy-efficient lighting. gb&d: Is this building a sign of a rejuvenating Vancouver housing market? Woolf: The design was resurrected in 2006 and drawings were issued for construction in 2008, preceding the downturn in late 2008. At one stage, there was contemplation to build in two phases, the first being the hotel and the lower 11 stories of the residential tower, which is commercial office space. We designed a temporary roof in case the project would be stopped for a period of time, but after the 2010 Winter Olympics, the developer announced that it would continue with the entire project. That spoke to the confidence of the building’s success in the marketplace. gb&d gb&d
ABOVE The Private Residences at Hotel Georgia capitalize on being connected to the historic Hotel Georgia, which is a cultural heritage site in Canada. OPPOSITE View of the porte cochère between the two buildings. The hotel and residential tower are located in the heart of the downtown district, encouraging residents and guests to walk or take public transportation.
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SPACES LIVE WORK PLAY
PROJECT
GREEN
LOCATION Austin, TX Size 10,000 ft2 Completed 2012 Program Private residence
CERTIFICATION Austin Energy Green Building (5 Stars) Energy Low permeability SPF opencell foam and insulated sheathing, geothermal system Landscape Natural xeriscaping and SYNLawn synthetic golf turf Roof Floating metal roof reflects solar heat
TEAM ARCHITECT Barley & Pfeiffer Architects Client Withheld General Contractor Oliver Custom Homes Landscape SYNLawn Golf
arley & Pfeiffer Architects used B locally quarried limestone for the custom residence as well as a galvalume standing-seam metal roof, which tends not to retain heat.
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(synthetic)
Greens
It’s no surprise that a world-renowned golf coach can putt around his backyard. What’s unexpected are the home’s (and the golf course’s) green features. By Benjamin van Loon gb&d
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H
ired to design a new home for a celebrated golf instructor who has coached some of the greatest players the game has ever seen, Barley & Pfeiffer Architects had to know the residence would include at least a putting green. However, it may not have expected an entire backyard golf course—or how resource-efficient such an installation could be. The 24-acre property contains re-creations of some of the most infamous greens in the world, and it’s all lined with proprietary, ultra-green SYNLawn synthetic turf, incorporating myriad green technologies and strategies whose ingenuity mirrors the client’s own precedent-setting golf innovations. The recreational yard is just the backdrop to the 10,000-square-foot private residence, built by Oliver Custom Homes. The house is located in the sunny hill country outside Austin, Texas, and it earned five stars through the Austin Energy Green Building program, the first green-building program in the country started in 1990. Peter Pfeiffer, president of Barley & Pfeiffer, says, “With his NASA background and his reputation in the golf world, the client wanted a home that was completely unique to [him]. It’s a very contemporary home, and there’s nothing else quite like it.” An aerial view of the site reveals something more akin to an estate than a home. The training course, designed by the client and intended for the private training of his most accomplished clientele, seems lush and verdant. Juxtaposed against the arid Texas Hill Country landscape, an initial view suggests a major resource drain because of its vibrant greens. But the turf is synthetic, water-free, and designed to perfectly mimic the texture of real golf greens. In other words, though it might appear
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“With his NASA background and his reputation in the golf world, the client wanted a home that was completely unique to him.” Peter Pfeiffer, Barley & Pfeiffer Architects
otherwise, you can’t get greens much greener than these. According to Pfeiffer, the Austinbased firm he operates with Alan Barley has been practicing the tenets of green building long before it became a trend. As such, the home is green primarily by virtue of its design, which Pfeiffer says, “first regards the position of the sun and the effects of the climate on the home and its systems.” The articulation of this sustainable view manifests primarily
through the engineering of the home’s roofing system, which floats above the actual roof of the home and uses a radiant barrier system. Whatever heat is not reflected by the brightness of the roof is absorbed by this floating “umbrella,” with very little heat finding its way down into the attic or living quarters below. The form of the home itself is inspired by the “swoosh” of a golf ball’s trajectory, with its most dramatic views facing westward over the training course. A gbdmagazine.com
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westward orientation is not often ideal, so the architects solved the problem by creating a type of screened-in, indoorand-outdoor space, separated by columns supporting the butterflied roof form. Golfers are thus able to begin their practice days in this space, first working on early-morning swings away from the sun before moving to the rest of the course. The floating-roof motif is carried into the other forms of the home. “The home has a very sophisticated and airtight insulation system,” Pfeiffer says. “SPF foam fills the wall cavities while foam board applied over the wall sheathing forms an insulated layer that goes over all the framing members of the home and acts as a thermal break, so minimal heat transfers to the interior.” Although the home is working to divert heat, the rest of the site is working to store it and regulate it through an innovative heat sink and geothermal system. There are two swimming pools gb&d
on the grounds as well as a 70,000-gallon underground cistern, and during the summer, the HVAC system transfers excess heat into the swimming pools and cistern (up to a preset point), which are filled with rainwater. The water in the swimming pools and cistern, acting with greater heat-transfer efficiency than the air, makes for an extremely energy-efficient home-heating and -cooling system. In Austin’s cooler months, the cistern never cools to less than 65 degrees and the swimming pools never get any cooler than 55 degrees, so the water is then used to heat the home. With its highly efficient envelope, maintenance-free turf, and multitude of gizmos, the residence is a paradise for golfers and green enthusiasts. gb&d
OPPOSITE The SYNLawn synthetic turf on the golf course uses 50% less water than grass, is 100% recyclable, and 70% of the product is made from a soybean-based polyol. LEFT The wood floors throughout the residence are made from locally sourced mesquite wood, a durable Texas hardwood. RIGHT Barley & Pfeiffer Architects designed the house to have deep, covered porches to mitigate solar heat gain and keep the outdoor areas protected from the Texas sun.
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A High-Rise 25 Years in the Making kensington investment company
Parcel by parcel, a Boston developer acquires land to build its namesake—a 27-story mixed-use luxury high-rise that goes beyond typical green design By Tina Vasquez
Project LOCATION Boston Size 500,000 ft2 Completed 2013 Program Luxury apartment units, parking garage, retail space
Team CLIENTS Kensington Investment Company, Northwestern Mutual Architect The Architectural Team General Contractor Suffolk Construction Company Development Consultant National Development Mechanical Engineer Cosentini Associates LEED Consultant AHA Consulting Engineers
Green Certification LEED Gold (expected) Site Within walking distance to local transit and Amtrak Materials 90% recycled-content structural steel, regional gypsum wall board and concrete Water 44% water-use reduction via low-flow fixtures Energy 40% energy-use savings and 23% energy cost savings Landscaping No irrigation required
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To say that the Kensington Investment Company’s latest endeavor has been a long time coming would be the ultimate understatement. The 27-story, 500,000-square-foot high-rise at the edge of Boston’s Chinatown features 381 luxury apartment units and 2,400 square feet of retail space, but The Kensington, as it’s being called, has taken 25 years to come to fruition. According to Harry Nash, the president of the real estate group at Kensington Investment Company, the site was an aggregation of a number of parcels, and the first one was purchased all the way back in 1986. The last parcel was finally acquired in 2004, but the site still required asbestos abatement and groundwater and soil remediation. “It’s been a long process to say the least,” Nash says. “With urban locations like these you can’t acquire all that you need when you want it. Small sites are owned by different people, and if they don’t want to sell, you have to wait it out.” By the time the project broke ground in October 2011, it had been 25 years since the first parcel was purchased, but the timing couldn’t have been better. Downtown Boston is experiencing a developmental renaissance—the Boston Globe reported that housing units in the area are expected to double in the coming years—and The Kensington is smack dab in the middle of Chinatown, one of the city’s emerging neighborhoods. The Kensington’s luxury apartments are as sleek and modern as the other high-rises going up in the area, but the building differentiates itself through its green features. The location lends to a more sustainable lifestyle. Two MBTA rapid transit lines are within a block of the site, the property is within walking distance of the South Station Commuter Rail and Amtrak, and each original unit lease receives a one-month MBTA rapid transit pass. The building also features preferred parking and provisions for electric cars gbdmagazine.com
LIVE WORK PLAY SPACES
Kensington Investment Company and Northwestern Mutual Real Estate Investments, LLC. say,
“ and has the usual elements required to meet LEED Gold certification: recycled materials, low-VOC paints, and low-flow fixtures. The Kensington Investment Company, however, went above and beyond in terms of sustainable design. “We have a corporate goal that all new projects will achieve the highest LEED standard that is economically viable, and this is the first major new construction project the company has undertaken,” Nash says. “Our equity partners, Northwestern Mutual Real Estate Investments and National Development, have very similar mind-sets. With the Kensington, we’re offering incentives for tenants to be green, and we’re also trying to focus on more than just the physical building itself but on health as well.”
ABOVE Boston’s Kensington has luxury green apartments and condos with lowVOC paints, low-flow plumbing fixtures, Energy Star appliances, and other features.
“It’s not likely that we’ll have the opportunity to do something of this magnitude again in the near future. It’s important to us that we get this right.” Harry Nash, Kensington Investment Company
A major selling point for the high-rise is that it is totally smoke-free, and the design emphasizes natural light in the building to improve residents’ moods, among other benefits. Nash and his team are also pushing to keep the apartments’ tenants accountable for their usage. Previously, it was not allowed to separately meter water use, but that’s no longer the case. Additional construction and design dollars were spent to meter the water consumption of each unit, the belief being that when tenants are paying the costs of a utility directly, they will become more conscious of how much water they use and potentially use less. “Saving on energy costs is only part of the goal,” Nash says. “This is a very large project, and it’s not likely that we’ll have the opportunity to do something of this magnitude again in the near future. It’s important to us that we get this right, and I think we have.” gb&d gb&d
THANKS to a GREAT
TEAM” City of Boston Boston Redevelopment Authority National Development The Architectural Team Suffolk Construction Company Bozzuto Management Cosentini Associates RD Jones & Associates McNamara / Salvia CK Communications Rubin & Rudman AHA Consulting Engineers Doerr Associates
L L﹒ S F﹒ Downtown Boston’s new, eco-friendly apartment residence is raising the bar for style, amenities and services.
617.574.8733 KensingtonBoston.com
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spa c e S W O R K
Raising the bar for energy efficiency and open office design, four firms partner to complete a cutting-edge workplace for Jones Lang LaSalle
Philly’s Smartest Office By Tina Vasquez
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“When we were [selecting a team], we knew we wanted a firm that was a leader in sustainable design, but we also wanted someone who would challenge us and push us out of our comfort zone.” Olivia Freeland, Jones Lang LaSalle
PROJECT Location Philadelphia Size 10,500 ft2 Completed 2012 Program Commercial office interior fit out Awards and Recognition Illumination Engineering Society of North America Section Merit Award, 2013; Greenbuild 2013 Green Building Tour selection
TEAM Client Jones Lange LaSalle Architect & LEED Consultant Re:Vision Architecture Systems Engineer In Posse Lighting Design Lam Partners Lighting Controls Lutron Construction Manager JLL Construction Leasing Agent JLL Brokerage Owner Representation JLL Project and Development Services Commissioning Agent JLL Commissioning Industry Partners Interface, Knoll, Herman Miller
GREEN
The Jones Lang LaSalle offices use glass throughout to connect the spaces, let in daylight, and provide views of downtown Philadelphia.
gb&d
Certification LEED Platinum Site Facilitates low-impact commuting, maximizes daylighting Materials Sourced regionally and from sustainably managed forests Waste 97% diversion rate (construction waste), 100% of existing furniture reused or redeployed Water Fixtures beat code by 45% Energy Office uses 55% less than CBECS average Lighting 50% less energy than code minimum with smart design and Lutron controls
J
ones Lang LaSalle (JLL), the international real estate services and investment management firm, wasn’t worried about having “too many cooks in the kitchen” when it partnered with four different companies to design the space that would become its new Philadelphia office. Scott Kelly, principal at Re:Vision Architecture, the project architect, says things might have been chaotic, but what resulted was more of a ballet, and the award-winning team’s hard work and sustainable oversight put the office on the Greenbuild 2013 Green Building Tour. “When we were [selecting a team], we knew we wanted a firm that was a leader in sustainable design,” says Olivia Freeland, a senior associate at JLL, “but we also wanted someone who would challenge us and push us out of our comfort zone.” In Posse was hired for its consulting and engineering design services because it specializes in net-zero-energy and “deep green” projects; Boston-based Lam Partners is known for its energy-efficient lighting design; and Lutron is a leading manufacturer of advanced lighting controls. The thread uniting the companies is a clear commitment to sustainability, and when it came time to relocating JLL’s Philadelphia office, it wasn’t a matter of whether or not green design would be used, but to what extent.
The Highest Standards The team was tasked with designing an office that promoted collaboration in the workplace, and innovation was key. “One of the first themes to emerge from our conversations with JLL was that they wanted to express the vitality of their company not through excess, but rather through innovation,” says Drew Lavine of Re:Vision. For JLL, innovation meant designing to the highest green standards possible and, according to JLL’s Philadelphia marnovember–december 2013
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“A majority of energy-efficient lighting designs simply give people less light. We ... put the light where it was needed and let the interstitial areas fall off.” Matt Latchford, Lam Partners
ket director Michael McCurdy, “leveraging the collective expertise within the firm of workplace strategy, tenant and landlord representation, project management and construction in a partnership with global facilities to create a collaborative, efficient, sustainable and fun environment that would endure the dynamic changes we anticipate within the next decade.” From the outset, sustainable design and LEED certification were part of the puzzle. “LEED was discussed early on,” Kelly says, “and we’re expected to receive Platinum certification. But the bigger picture was about conserving as much energy as possible. LEED gave us the framework for the dialogue though it wasn’t the one driving force behind the space.” In July 2013, that expectation was fulfilled; the project received LEED CI Platinum certification
with 85 points. (At press time this was the highest score in the state of Pennsylvania for a LEED CI project.) What’s Next? JLL’s former office had a bank of conference rooms separate from the open seating work area. “One of the biggest challenges we often encounter in workplace design is helping clients transition from private office cultures to an open office culture,” Lavine says. “JLL’s former office had an open layout, so we didn’t face this cultural shift, but we did have to confront what is next—what is beyond the open-office best practices already in place?” The result is a variety of collaboration-ready spaces: informal seating arrangements, microcollaboration rooms for a handful of people, a large technology-focused conference room, and a multifunctional café space.
ABOVE With the Lutron lighting control system and smart design by Lam Partners, the new office uses 50% less energy than the code minimum. The lighting design is meant to balance lighting fixtures as objects in the space but to also use light to define objects. LEFT Jones Lang LaSalle’s new office is intentionally column-free to not impede the sight lines of the employees and to bring daylight to the most interior spaces.
gbdmagazine.com
THE LUTRON SYSTEM The Lutron Quantum system is one of the most advanced digital lighting control systems available. Essentially, the technology turns a lighting installation into a smart, interactive system, allowing a user to monitor energy use in real time, receive updates such as, “My lamp is burned out,� or simply reprogram the system should they want to change anything. With a traditional system, making these kinds of changes would require starting from scratch and having an electrician rewire everything. With the Lutron Quantum system, users simply reprogram it and fine-tune every detail using the daylightharvesting feature, vacancy sensors, workspace smart plugs, and automated daylight shading.
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The 10,500-square-foot space was chosen because of how well daylighting could be controlled with smart architecture. The building had few structural columns, enabling a layout that would optimize natural light. The lighting design itself would actually become one of JLL’s most impressive features, which is where In Posse’s Shannon Kaplan and Lam Partners’ Matt Latchford came in. The pair was responsible for the implementation and design using Lutron’s Quantum system, one of the most advanced digital lighting systems on the market. Smarter Lighting The Quantum system enables JLL to monitor usage in real time, and it’s interactive. A user can monitor energy use, receive updates, and even reprogram the system. Strategically placed vacancy and occupancy sensors allow employees
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working during different time schedules to have appropriate lighting without turning on all the lights in the office. Further energy savings were achieved with gadgets such as workspace smart plugs that will turn off anything plugged in when not in use. “We were balancing ambitious energy savings goals with functional space requirements and innovative design,” Latchford says. “A majority of energy-efficient lighting designs simply give people less light. We started with the notion that we would essentially put the light where it was needed and let the interstitial areas fall off. We collaborated with Re:Vision to integrate the lighting as much as possible, working light fixtures into architectural details.” The end design is sleek and casually cool, so gorgeous and cutting edge that JLL’s Philadelphia office now doubles as a
ABOVE Re:Vision Architecture wanted to rethink the “open office” concept by adding informal meeting tables, microcollaboration rooms, large conference spaces, and an informal café area.
local Lutron showcase project. Freeland is particularly fond of the wireless light switches, which are affixed to the office’s glass walls with double-sided tape. “We’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback from employees and visitors alike,” Freeland says. “The Philadelphia office embodies what Jones Lang LaSalle stands for as a company, and it’s a workspace we can be proud of.” gb&d gbdmagazine.com
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SANTA MONICA ANIMATION STUDIO Gwynne Pugh Urban Studio Santa Monica, California
In Santa Monica’s industrial corridor, a 17,000-square-foot building from the 1940s was just a bowstring truss and brick warehouse. Gwynne Pugh Urban Studio was enlisted to redesign the old building’s interior for an international animation company, and the design firm chose to keep the original bones of the building and the polished concrete floors, creating an attractive and environmentally sensitive aesthetic. The centerpiece of the new design is the “cube,” which houses the screening room, two editing rooms, and a central IT room for the entire office. This architectural element has a black band around the bottom, making the cube appear as if its floating in the middle of the space. The studio is covered in natural wood and lit with multiple skylights and energy-efficient lighting. gb&d
photos: Benny Chan
BOXED IN. The architects maintained the spacious volume of the warehouse building by placing the animators’ requisite screening room in a separate structure within the space. In the kitchen area (top right), ideas of indoor and outdoor spaces are blurred by operable windows and sliding glass doors.
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Landscape Architecture
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Double Duty. Hardly your average distribution center, Dollar General’s facility is functional and inspirational. Various elements, such as the elevated walk (bottom) evoke the feel of a truck trailer.
S P O T L I G H T WOR K
Dollar General Distribution Center Leo A. Daly
photos: Bill Baxley
Bessemer, Alabama
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Distribution centers generally aren’t known for their architecture, but Dollar General’s Alabama facility designed by the Leo A. Daly team does double duty as a functional yet visually striking space. Stretching one million square feet across more than 100 acres, the center comprises a warehouse, shipping and receiving truck guardhouses, a truck maintenance and dispatch facility, pump house, administrative office, and employee hub. A sky bridge provides interconnectivity among the buildings. To enhance employee wellness and foster interaction, the hub includes such features as a 600-seat cafeteria daylit by both translucent and glazed windows and complemented by a porch where employees can relax or host a cookout. The facility’s aesthetic takes its inspiration from the very trucks it traffics. The warehouse façade has concrete panels, which are embellished with a tire-tread design, while finished steel panels interior walls and faux particleboard covering the ceiling is reminiscent of of semitruck storage containers. gb&d
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Engineering
‘The Bank’
The M&T Bank Stadium anticipates LEED-EB Gold due to extensive operations upgrades. The facility has increased its recycling rate sevenfold in the past seven years.
SPACES
Innovative energy reduction measures ensure the Baltimore Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium will earn LEED Gold By Kathryn Freeman Rathbone
PROJECT Location Baltimore Size 1.6 million ft² Completed 2013 Program Two-part stadium renovation and energy reduction initiative
TEAM OWNER Baltimore Ravens Architect IMT Architecture + Design Design Consultant Powers Creative Lighting Design Consultant Syska Hennessy Group
photo: SHAWN HUBBARD (right)
GREEN CERTIFICATION LEED Gold (expected) Materials Arriscraft Renaissance masonry units, concrete, weatherproof stripping Water Waterless urinals, smart irrigation system Energy Automatic light switches, refrigerator units shut down during off-peak hours, LED boards and fixtures Recycling Recycling receptacles, recycling public relations campaign Landscape Turf requires no irrigation, uses pellets from stadium’s first field
T
he Baltimore Ravens, 2012’s reigning Super Bowl champions, work tirelessly toward perfection, and even the football team’s field, the M&T Bank Stadium (known as “The Bank”), isn’t exempt from this pursuit. Built in 1998, it’s currently undergoing a revamp that should lead to LEED Gold status. The Bank’s anticipated LEED Gold certification—which will be classified under the Existing Building: Operations and Maintenance category—is part of a much larger effort aimed toward streamlining operations. “Six years ago, [Ravens president] Dick Cass proposed a challenge,” says Roy Sommerhof, vice president of the Ravens’ stadium operations department. “We had to reduce our budget by 10 percent. In stadium operations, that meant addressing utility expenses.” The operations team began by tackling the concession-stand coolers. “There are more than 1,000 of those units inside the stadium, and they were running constantly from August through early January,” Sommerhof says. The solution seemed simple: operations would turn off the refrigerators when The Bank was not in use. However, concessions vendors
were concerned that their products would be adversely affected if not refrigerated 24/7, but operations staff wasn’t easily dissuaded. “We did a test to see how long it took to cool down a warm beverage to its optimal serving temperature. It turned out to be 18 hours,” Sommerhof says. “Now, we turn the refrigerators on 18 hours before a game, and we have yet to get a complaint.” All those empty beverage containers means a lot of trash, so the operations team has also implemented an aggressive recycling program. For each trash can inside The Bank and outside in the tailgating area, there’s now a recycling bin sitting right next to it. So stadium attendees would know about the recycling program, the operations team did a public relations recycling campaign for the 2013-2014 season. “Seven years ago, we were only recycling two tons of trash per game,” says Jeff Provenzano, director of football operations for the Maryland Stadium Authority at The Bank. “In 2012, we recycled 13 to 14 tons per game. And what wasn’t recycled was burned and converted into steam. Nothing goes into a landfill.” The stadium’s efforts don’t end with recycling; waterless urinals have replaced typical ones in the men’s
RIGHT At night, the stadium is lit mostly with LED lights. Moving forward, every fixture will house an LED bulb. Architect Chun-Fa Tan says despite the up front cost, the investment will pay off quickly.
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ABOVE A recycling program initiated in 2005 began with two tons of recyclables being collected at the inaugural game. Since then, the recycling has escalated to 13 tons per game in 2012 and is expected to double in 2013. TOP RIGHT Sixty percent of employees use light rail, carpool, or bike to and from work, and approximately 10% of football fans use light rail when attending games.
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RIGHT In 2012, the lower concourse was retrofitted with waterless urinals and dualflush toilets. It was a simple measure that saved an estimated 160,000 gallons of water.
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restrooms, drastically reducing The Bank’s overall water consumption. Even the Ravens’ new pristine field, which doesn’t require watering, incorporates recycled pellets that came from the stadium’s first turf surface. Still, much of the focus of the operations team’s reduction plan concentrates on electrical consumption. As part of the stadium’s two-stage renovation, new and additional LED information boards will replace existing boards. Each LED light has a life cycle of 10 to 15 years, and the boards don’t require additional cooling systems. LEDs will also replace existing bulbs, and all new lighting will be all-LED. “There’s no substitute for LEDs,” says Chun-Fa Tan, the architect from IMT Architecture + Design leading the renovation. “In the new concourse renovation alone, there’s more than two miles of fixtures. The cost may be more up front, but from an operations standpoint, they will really pay off.” Those payoffs, as the LEED Gold certification indicates, are already making a difference. “When we started our initiatives, we were using 16 million kilowatts of energy a year,” Provenzano says. “Last year, we came in right under 11 million.” That’s an energy reduction of more than 30 percent, and in the true Ravens’ spirit, the operations team has no plans to stay satisfied with those results. “We’ll never stop looking for places where we can save,” he adds. “There’s always a way to save a kilowatt.” gb&d A Message from Aramark
ARAMARK Sports and Entertainment creates remarkable experiences at more than 150 premier sports facilities, convention centers, and entertainment venues throughout North America. With industry-leading insight, ARAMARK provides inventive, interactive, and inspired solutions that deliver high-impact business results. To see how we turn insight into impact, visit aramarkentertainment. com or follow @aramarksports.
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garrison architects
A Hurricane-Proof ShorelinE for nyc How to design low-impact beach structures for a coastline ravaged by Superstorm Sandy. In six months. By Jeff Link
B
usy at his drafting desk on Christmas Day of 2012, James Garrison had his hands full. He had an upcoming meeting with the New York City Design Commission January 7, 2013, to share concept drawings for 35 new comfort stations, lifeguard stations, and park offices to be built along the coastline of Rockaway Beach, Brooklyn’s Coney Island, and Staten Island’s Midland Beach, Cedar Grove Beach, and Wolfe’s Pond Park—the same stretch of shoreline where Hurricane Sandy’s 13-foot-high storm surge wrenched boardwalks from their supports, destroyed summer residences and other buildings, and left tens of thousands homeless and without power just two months earlier. The good news: The design firm, Garrison Architects, had made it through the bidding process and been awarded the design contract for a high-profile $106 million construction project to
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rebuild structures on the devastated shoreline. It had its marching orders from David Burney, commissioner of the New York City Department of Design and Construction, who desired an ecologically sustainable system of permanent structures resilient to future climate-change disasters and minimally disruptive to the surrounding communities. The bad news: The team had six weeks to finish the design, and construction was to be completed by Memorial Day 2013, when tens of thousands of New Yorkers would descend on the beaches for the first day of swimming. Garrison’s solution: Three sleek, utilitarian, modular building types that could be constructed off-site in a component approach similar to the construction of a modern automobile. Designed to meet FEMA’s 500-year flood standard, the sandblasted, galvanized steel structures were built on a tight production schedule in Berwick, Pennsylvania. The
Others Rebuilding Garrison Architects’ modular beach structures are part of a large-scale rebuilding of New York City’s coastline following Hurricane Sandy, including renovation of WPA-era concession stands and restrooms by Sage & Coombe Architects, repair and restoration of damaged parks buildings by SRW Architects and Engineers, and the restoration and improvement of Steeplechase Pier in Coney Island by McLaren Engineering Group and LTL Architects.
gbdmagazine.com
Project
Team
Green
LOCATION New York City Completed 2013 Scope 15 beach sites, 35 structures Program Comfort stations, lifeguard stations, and offices for New York City parks and maintenance staff
ARCHITECT Garrison Architects Client New York Department of Parks and Recreation, New York Department of Design and Construction Landscape Architect Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architect MEP Engineer Plus Group Modular Structure Anastos Engineering Structural Engineer McLaren Engineering Construction Manager Jacobs Project Management General Contractor Triton Structural Concrete
CERTIFICATION Not applicable Structures Galvanized steel frames designed to endure 500-year flood level, modular design and construction Materials Rain-screen cladding systems, double-skin ventilated roof cavities for longevity and reduction of solar heat transmission Energy Net-metered PV arrays, daylighting via clerestory windows
ABOVE The modular comfort stations are assembled in Berwick, PA (top). Once in place, the structures are perched between eight and seventeen feet above the sand.
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modular chassis and their component parts, weighing 120,000 pounds each, were loaded onto flatbed trucks, hauled to the Port of Newark, off-loaded onto barges, and chartered across the Upper Bay to Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach, where they were quickly installed. The buildings are raised eight to seventeen feet off the ground, naturally lit, ventilated with continuous clerestories and skylights, and connected to gangplanks with trussed handrails that descend to the beach and boardwalks. To offset energy use, sunlight is absorbed by
net-metered photovoltaic roof arrays connected to New York City’s electrical grid. “All the things we use try to maximize the sun’s light and heat to create energy and reduce the mechanical means of achieving these,” Garrison says. What will happen to the structures if there’s another Sandy? “Not much,” he says, laughing wisely. “The water will go right underneath them.” gb&d
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INSTANT STATUS. Open for a mere six months, the Nashville Music City Center seems poised to become the city’s most recognizable landmark. Sophisticated lighting systems, rainwater capture, and a 178,000-square-foot green roof make it a sustainable icon as well.
SPACES
S P O T L I G H T P L AY
NASHVILLE MUSIC CITY CENTER TVS Design NASHVILLE
In Nashville’s emerging SOBRO (South of Broadway) neighborhood, architects at TVS Design created an inspired 1.2 millionsquare-foot convention space that artfully and subtly reflects the city’s storied country music history—though you might need a helicopter to be sure. From above, the outline of the center’s ballroom takes the shape of the body of an acoustic guitar. The building’s 178,000-square-foot green roof—nearly 40 percent of which is outfitted with photovoltaic panels—is visible from this view as well. Water is collected to recycle for irrigation and to supply the high-efficiency lavatories, which reduce water use by 80 percent. Highly automated and responsive lighting systems contribute to the center’s contention for LEED Silver certification. Making a bold statement with its color, size—it spans six city blocks—and nontraditional façade, the Music City Center has two-story window walls clad in orange-bronze panels. Pillars of the same hue stand in pairs under the canopy of the roof, which rolls like foothills from the west end but tapers like the final notes of a song toward the east. gb&d
photo: Nick Merrick, Hedrich Blessing
EXTRAS See more of the Nashville Music City Center online at gbdmagazine.com and in our iPad edition, available in the App Store.
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List
128 Intergate.Manhattan New York City’s first high-rise data center 132 THE VAN NESS
Samuels & Associates finishes its Boston triad
134 Russell Investments Center A leading green roof seven years later
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Adaptive Reuse A high-rise Data center
Intergate.Manhattan New York City Sabey Data Center Properties By Benjamin van Loon
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Intergate.Manhattan is the world’s tallest data center.
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32
Stories in the 1975 building, which was first used as a telephone switching center
Most of Sabey’s data center properties utilize air-side economizers for their cooling needs. However, Intergate.Manhattan’s urban location, with associated heat island effects, necessitates a waterside economizer.
40
Megawatts of power that will eventually be afforded by the data center
1m
Total square feet in Intergate. Manhattan, with 35,000 ft² floor plans
Scene
When the 32-story New York Telephone Company building at 375 Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan was completed in 1975, The New York Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger called it the “most disturbing” of the phone company’s switching centers. Although its bright limestone façade reflects a certain officious lightness, the tower’s rigid angles, narrow windows, and authoritarian opacity are visually arid. For years, Verizon owned the building, treating it as a switching center for its own telecommunications services. In 2007, with the commercial building industry still bustling, Taconic Investment Partners bought the tower for $172 million, intending to add a Cook & Fox-designed glass curtainwall and convert its program to office space. But before work could begin, the tower slipped into foreclosure, and in 2011, Sabey Data Center Properties, the largest privately held developer, owner, and manager of data center properties in the United States, acquired the tower from M&T Bank for $120 million, seeing an opportunity to fill a need and build an important ‘first’ in Manhattan with a high-rise data center.
ABOVE A sample floor plan of the data center, the first phase of which can handle 5.4 megawatts of electrical demand, but the tower will eventually be able to handle 40 megawatts. Most tenants need between 100 kilowatts and two megawatts.
gb&d
$120m Cost of the building when purchased from M&T Bank in 2011
Setup
The conversion of 375 Pearl Street from a telephone switching center to a one million-square-foot data center has done nothing to alter the façade of the building, but now the tower, renamed Intergate.Manhattan, has a pragmatic aesthetic that serves to mirror it’s freshly realized and purely technological function. And complementary of such large-scale adaptive reuse, Intergate.Manhattan also uses intelligent sustainable strategies for its cooling and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, suggesting that Sabey’s conversion not only sets a precedent for sustainable data center management but also data center function in a dense urban context. Intergate.Manhattan, which had a soft opening in March 2013, offers its tenants both types of leases managed by Sabey: Powered Shell and Wholesale Co-Location. The former offers a shell with an amount of associated power to support client data needs, and the client thus performs all associated design and operations. The latter involves Sabey’s own electrical and mechanical build-outs with associated cooling and power leases in spaces operated by Sabey. The basic infrastructure allowing for these multifaceted data centers was already in place when Sabey purchased the tower in 2011, so in order to orient the building for its 2013 opening, Sabey first needed to turn the tower into a shell. John Sasser, vice president of operations for Sabey, says, “There was a lot of old, used office furniture in the building, raised flooring, and a lot of equipment past the end of its useful life, so we first restored the building to a shell condition. If you look at many of the floors in the building now, you’ll see a lot of bare concrete. It’s very well-positioned for future leasing and builds.”
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TOUGH BUILDS Intergate.Manhattan
“All of the things that come together in this building— the structure, the space, the available power— especially in a difficult market, it’s a very big deal.” John Sasser, Sabey Data Center Properties
Strategy
One of the greatest advantages of the tower at 375 Pearl Street is its size and robustness with clear heights on the floors ranging from 14 to 23 feet and a floor-loading capability of anywhere between 150 to 400 pounds per square foot. The load capacity allows for the installation of heavy-duty server and cooling equipment, but more significantly, it gives Sabey room to use its various sustainable and energy-efficient strategies for power-loading and machine-cooling systems. After Sabey reduced Intergate.Manhattan to a shell, it began phase one of construction, which involved major infrastructural updates. “The building electrical system was 40 years old, so we replaced all of the old electrical elements with new larger switchers and transformers that, because they are new, don’t have any end-of-life issues,” Sasser says. “We also moved these elements up to the second floor, so they’re out of any potential flooding scenario and they’re sized for growth.” Sabey also performed similar infrastructural updates to the water services coming into the building, which—in addition to the upgraded electrical systems—provides the utilities backdrop for the data center’s state-of-the-art cooling systems; elevated, variable-speed energy chillers; efficient UPS modules, which run at 97 percent efficiency; and a waterside economizer. “The primary thing you can do to make a data center more energy efficient is to cool it efficiently,” Sasser says. “We’re using hot aisle containment here, which separates the cool and the hot airflows, allowing us to extend our economizer hours, and the economizer itself lets us cool without any mechanical refrigeration cycle.” When the outdoor air temperature is cool enough, it allows Sabey to turn its chillers off and transfer the cooling load to a heat exchanger to keep the closed
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water-loop cool, and thus transfer that air to the server rooms and keep the machines cool. This, coupled with the center’s proximity to its would-be city-based lessors, situates Intergate.Manhattan not only as a power-savvy data center but also involves its program in an active urban context where the market for proximal data center space is ripe. Furthermore, Intergate.Manhattan’s proximity to its users lessens latency issues and centralizes IT management capabilities under one roof. “The term we’re using to describe this project is that it’s a ‘generational asset,’” Sasser says. “It’s a very unique building, and all of the things that come together in this building—the structure, the space, the available power—especially in a difficult market, it’s a very big deal. We’ve focused a lot of our energy and attention on it, and we plan on building this tower out for years to come.” gb&d
ABOVE Intergate.Manhattan was outside the Hurricane Sandy flood zone, but in the interest of ensuring total power protection, backup generators are installed on the fourth floor of the tower, 69 feet above street level.
A Message from Automated Logic Corporation
Automated Logic Corporation is proud to be installing a state-ofthe-art WebCTRL® Building Automation System in “The world’s tallest data center,” Intergate.Manhattan. Designed with the Mission Critical Facility in mind, WebCTRL® will provide Sabey Data Centers with the essential tools required to meet their customer’s reliability and environmental needs.
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TOUGH BUILDS
urban infill Targeting the Fenway Triangle The Van Ness Boston Samuels & Associates By Benjamin van Loon
Vision
The neighborhood surrounding Boston’s Fenway Park, like much of Boston, is historic, dense, and busy. Even as new mixed-use buildings, restaurants, and residential towers emerge from the site of former surface parking lots and gas stations, the picturesque streetscapes are marked by their proximity to Fenway— the oldest Major League Baseball stadium in the United States. An average of 33,000 fans per game attend during baseball season, which brings congestion to the area, in addition to the 40,000 daily employees and 80,000 university students already moving through what is known as the Fenway Triangle. It’s an area ripe for development, and for more than a decade, the Boston-based firm Samuels & Associates has been developing in the Fenway neighborhood. The firm has created the Fenway Triangle Trilogy, beginning with a one million-square-foot mixed-use project and a second mixed-use project with ground-floor retail, 200 residential units, and a 100,000-square-foot health center. The most recent project, The Van Ness, a 600,000-square-foot mixed-use project and future home of Boston’s first City Target, rounds out the trilogy and will be completed in 2015 with a LEED Gold certification.
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$300m 172 233k
Total development cost of The Van Ness
ABOVE More than 80,000 people live within one mile of where The Van Ness is being constructed. The development, by Samuels & Associates, will bring residential units and shopping to the area.
Residential units
Square feet of office space
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“When the firm first started meeting with community groups and planning officials, it was clear that the area should become a mixed-use urban village.” Abe Menzin, Samuels & Associates
Value
Village
“When the firm first started meeting with community groups and planning officials, it was clear that the area should become a mixed-use urban village,” says Abe Menzin, the vice president of development at Samuels & Associates. The neighborhood is a truly transit-oriented location, with the Longwood Medical Area and Boston’s Back Bay within walking distance and access to the Fenway MBTA stop and the Yawkey Station Commuter Rail Station. It now is a well-traveled area, yet prior to development, key parcels were used mainly as surface parking lots and were not contributing to the vision for the neighborhood as a transit-oriented urban village. “We take the long view of development,” Menzin says. “With any project, we take a holistic approach to the neighborhood. The scale and design of the project will help realize the urban village vision for this neighborhood.” Informed largely by the strategic infill nature of The Van Ness and associated Fenway Triangle projects, as well gb&d
ABOVE The Van Ness building has a fourth-floor rooftop park and garden above its retail spaces. The mixed-use development will be Samuels & Associates’ first LEED Gold development in the Fenway neighborhood though its two prior Fenway Triangle projects will also be pursuing LEED-EB certification.
as strong community connectivity, the current project is being constructed to LEED Gold specifications. The Fenway Triangle Trilogy and 1330 Boylston Street buildings were designed prior to LEED and were retrofitted recently with green features including energy conservation measures and green roofs. Landmark Center, a nearby Samuels & Associates property, is a one million-square-foot mixed-use project that will retroactively target LEED EB certification, helping unify the neighborhood under a ‘green’ umbrella.
Before Samuels & Associates started construction on The Van Ness building, the site was occupied by a parking garage, surface parking lots, and functionally obsolete automotive uses. The firm was able to fill the spaces with short-term tenants to maintain activity in the area and bring in revenue while it prepared for constructing The Van Ness. “We do this throughout the neighborhood, so that when we buy new buildings, they’re not sitting empty and underused during the predevelopment process,” Menzin says. “They need to contribute to the streetscape until they’re redeveloped.” The ground floor of The Van Ness is dedicated to retail, and the second, third, and fourth floors will have Boston’s first City Target as its main tenant. The residential tower and office tower begin above the fourth floors and are separated by an urban garden for residents that connects the two buildings four stories above street level. The Van Ness uses a high-efficiency central mechanical plant, which will result in more than 20 percent energy savings annually upon completion. Additionally, the new structure uses low-flow plumbing and water fixtures and low-VOC finishes throughout, making the building a mixed-use project that is both clean and well-connected. “We’re also making big steps in implementing highly granular metering systems to monitor tenant utilities usage at The Van Ness,” Menzin says. “It will help people keep track of individual tenants’ actual consumption, and lead to better, smarter practices and more incentives for tenants to conserve energy. We are fortunate to be working with a forward-thinking financial partner, who understands that improving the sustainability of each of our real estate projects improves both the environment in which the buildings operate and the economic value of the assets.” gb&d november–december 2013
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TOUGH BUILDS
analytics Tracking a green roof
Russell Investments Center Seattle American Hydrotech
By Russ Klettke
U
nderneath the excitement about the proliferation of vegetated roofs hangs a nagging question: Will these stand the test of time? As an early adopter of the vegetated roof, the 23,000-square-foot garden on the 17th floor of the Russell Investments Center in downtown Seattle, installed in 2006, gives us a look into the future of the green roofs being planted today. The project came with challenges. Seattle receives 150 days of precipitation per year though actual rainfall is only 37 inches (New York City averages 50 inches per year). The garden’s south and west orientations are exposed to the Puget Sound, which sends an occasional onslaught of high winds and heavy rainfall. Add to this that priceless works at the Seattle Art Museum are located one floor down, which means that leaky roofs and water damage are especially unwelcome. Dennis Yanez, national marketing manager for American Hydrotech, which provided its Monolithic Membrane, a hot rubberized asphalt rooftop that serves as the bathtub for the entire installation, says the building has nothing to worry about. After seven years, the roof is leak-free, the plants are thriving, and it’s one of the most popular spots in the city.
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7 years
Age of the award-winning green roof on the Russell Investments Center. Due in part to American Hydrotech’s Monolithic Membrane, the roof is 100% leak-free.
36 in.
Soil depth required by the pine trees that cover a portion of the green roof. Shallower soil might not have properly anchored the trees against the intense winds on the 17th floor.
gbdmagazine.com
Photos: Brett Drury
The evergreens and native grasses on this 17th-floor green roof provide urban habitat for birds and insects.
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TOUGH BUILDS Russell Investments Center
“A balance between aesthetics and drought tolerance was the key.” Dennis Yanez, American Hydrotech
50-75%
Amount of precipitation that is not absorbed in Seattle. To combat this, the city incentivizes green roofs in both commercial and residential applications.
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storms. A hat-like partial roof protects plantings from downdrafts along the curtainwall that rises above the garden to the top of the building at 42 stories. “A balance between aesthetics and drought tolerance was the key,” Yanez says of the project, which received an Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2007. Visitors can take in the surrounding mountains and the Puget Sound through a mounted telescope, and an oversized abacus is a subtle nod to the financial industry and contrasts with the contemporary aluminum-and-cedar trellis and slate boulders that mimic Washington’s Olympic Mountains. All elements can be seen from an inside lunch area that has floor-to-ceiling windows, maintaining the roof deck as a popular place every day, rain or shine. gb&d
Photos: Brett Drury
The original client, Washington Mutual Bank, built the green roof before dissolving in the financial crisis of 2008 (the building now houses Russell Investments, a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual). The bank told landscape architect Chris Phillips, of Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg in Vancouver, British Columbia, that it wanted employees to have access to fresh air and sunlight. “They were very enthusiastic about the well-being of their people,” Phillips says. The plan called for a diverse plant system that would be aesthetically pleasing and attractive to employees, effectively turning the concept of the windowless employee lunchroom inside out. Native pine trees, bamboo, and grasses fit the site conditions with cross-cables in the shallow, 12- to 36-inch-deep soil to brace trees against those occasional wind-
gbdmagazine.com
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List 138
Rania Alomar makes a name for herself
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Material World
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On the Boards
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architect to watch
A new interior use for coconut husks Amazon’s amazing biospheres On the Spot
Jason F. McLennan gets candid
november–december 2013
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PUNCH LIST
“When it comes to design, Los Angeles isn’t just a springboard for the country, it’s a springboard for the entire world.” Rania Alomar, RA-DA
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PUNCH LIST
Architect to Watch Rania Alomar
“There’s nobody in the world who doesn’t know Los Angeles. That suits me.” That’s the perspective of Rania Alomar, principal architect of her own Los Angeles firm, RA-DA. Alomar moved from Manchester, United Kingdom, to the City of Angels almost 20 years ago, and she’s never looked back. She talks to us here about building her career in one of the world’s most creative places. Interview by Kathryn Freeman Rathbone
gb&d: You stayed at big firms for 10 years. Why did you ultimately decide to go out on your own and found RA-DA? Alomar: RA-DA, my own practice, has always been my ultimate goal. I moved up to design lead very quickly at NBBJ, and I did a lot of sports and arena work. I moved to Rossetti in 2003 partly because I didn’t want to be known as “the sports girl.” There, I did lots of different buildings that were more varied in scale and type. I wanted to learn how to handle contracts, how to run projects, how to deal with systems, and I learned that at the big firms. But every move in my career has always been aimed at having my own practice. It came to the point where I was either going to become a principal or start my own practice, so I went out on my own and started getting small commissions. gb&d: What was your first project?
gb&d: You’re originally from England. What drew you half the world away to Los Angeles? Rania Alomar: I have my undergraduate degree in architecture from The University of Manchester in the UK. My graduate degree is from SCI-Arc in Los Angeles. When I first visited SCI-Arc, I went to the campus, walked in, and felt the energy. It was a mess, but a creative mess filled with models, drawings, and crazy contraptions. It was really exciting because Manchester was much more technical and rigorous. SCI-Arc balanced that. gb&d: Did you find that this creativity really did translate to the classroom? Alomar: Yes, definitely. When I look back on my work from school, I can see how each studio led me to discover something new. Our professors were like guidance counselors; they would lead us in a direction, but the ultimate tell for me was gb&d
when I produced something completely new. At SCI-Arc, I really gained a whole new confidence in trusting my ability and my eye. gb&d: Los Angeles is known for its boutique firms. Why did you decide to go work for a large firm after graduating? Alomar: After SCI-Arc, I went to work for NBBJ because it was becoming a force in sports and entertainment architecture. There were lots of young kids there like me; we worked crazy hours and gave it our all. The older architects—we called them the “gray hairs”—looked after us. It was a lot like school, and it was fantastic. I was first put on the Staples Center project and thrown into the deep end. I designed a good deal of the stadium’s skin, and I was really lucky to have the experience. I spent about a year on-site and got to see everything firsthand. It gave me the fundamental experience of seeing how a building actually gets built.
Alomar: It was the Chase Field extension in Phoenix. The owners wanted to renovate a zone at the top of the stadium that would house their offices, and they wanted something completely unique. It was really creative, and it was exactly the kind of stuff I wanted to do. Our design didn’t get built, but we did win a 2007 AIA Design Award for it. gb&d: Now that you’ve been working in Los Angeles for 20 years, do you still believe in the city’s creativity? Alomar: Absolutely. LA is constantly changing, and there’s always lots of space for improvement. The client base here really supports creativity. In many ways, it’s a transient city where you’re always meeting new people from other countries, and that influences the work. So when it comes to design, Los Angeles isn’t just a springboard for the country, it’s a springboard for the entire world. gb&d november–december 2013
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PUNCH LIST
Solar tubes bring natural light into this Los Angeles animal shelter’s main hallway
Architect to Watch RA-DA’s take on the animal shelter One of Alomar’s latest projects is the South Los Angeles Animal Shelter, a much-needed facility that serves the up-and-coming neighborhood as a community node. “The shelter is extremely utilitarian and is driven by its program, but it creates an environment where people want to go in groups and it knits animal care into the community,” Alomar says of the design. To make the space inviting, Alomar linked the parking lot to a 40,000-squarefoot outdoor kennel garden in the center of the facility. “It’s green and filled with pockets of small parks and landscape to make it a nice space where people can interact with the animals,” she says. “Every kennel faces something green, and the outdoor design reduces odor and noise, making the whole experience much more pleasant for animals and people both.” gb&d
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Rania Alomar borrowed the idea of shopping malls, where people pass smaller stores on their way to big department stores, to inform her design. Visitors pass reptiles and rabbits that they can adopt before getting to the puppies.
PUNCH LIST
Material World Island Flavor
JASON F. MCLENNAN Continued from p. 20
gb&d: I want to talk about your research project, the Economics of Change. The stated goal of the project is to “develop a new model for real estate investment that will remove the artificial financial disincentives to deep green buildings.” Can you describe some of those disincentives?
With Kirei’s new Coco Tiles, modern, sustainable design is going tropical
Kirei has brought typical natural materials, such as bamboo, wheatboard, and hemp, to the sustainable marketplace since 2003, but its new line of tiles made from reclaimed coconut shells might be one of its most innovative offer-
ings yet. The new Coco Tiles have low- or no-VOC adhesives and finishes, and they come in 12 different styles that are versatile enough to be used as wall coverings or as part of furniture design. The tiles’ warm hues and woven surface designs will give any space much-needed texture that looks like it just needs to be touched. More importantly, the tiles contribute to LEED credits, and they come in two different collections, both of which appear modern and rustic at the same time, to suit any project. gb&d —Tina Vasquez
McLennan: One way to look at this issue is that whenever we build a building or any project, we shift a lot of the burden onto others, the taxpayers, and we don’t account for them. There’s externalities at play. Those externalities not being counted often means that doing the right thing is often more expensive than doing the wrong thing. So it becomes more expensive to produce a building that doesn’t have pollution than one that is polluting. But if you actually accounted for the pollution and the health care impacts, it would of course be a lot cheaper to do the right thing. gb&d: There was an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune maybe about a year ago proposing bike tolls. His whole argument was that there’s an increasing number of cyclists and that they should be charged for use of the roads, and I remember thinking, I don’t consider myself a saint for biking to work, but the fact is that my bike tires aren’t contributing to the degradation of the roads and not polluting the streets, versus if I was commuting by myself in a car.
PHOTO: JUAN A. HERNANDEZ (jason F. Mcclennan)
McLennan: And he’s probably not lobbying for trucks to be charged the most, and cars next, and bikes third. If he wants to do that, fine! How about just a use fee based upon weight and impact to the infrastructure? Let’s add health-care impacts into that, and you’ll end up paying one penny a year to use the road as a bike, and the trucking companies will have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars. Suddenly more people will start biking. gb&d
The Babakan Urban Coco Tile is part of Kirei’s warm-hued Java Collection. Each one of these concave, semi-gloss tiles is unique; when combined, they make any surface appear to be a work of art.
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PUNCH LIST
On the Boards Amazon’s Amazing Biospheres
The world’s largest retailer teams up with one of the world’s largest architectural firms to create a spherical space for its new Seattle headquarters Who wouldn’t want to work in a biosphere? Just imagine all the Biodome jokes. Although often a controversial architectural form, the idea of a sphere has persisted throughout time, and in the case of NBBJ’s development plan for Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, it’s perfectly synecdochical for our global biosphere. Announced in fall 2012 with a projected 2016 delivery date, the botanical, greenhouse-style LEED Gold biospheres are situated in the center of Amazon’s upcoming 3.3 million-squarefoot high-rise complex in Denny Triangle. Reimagining the original proposal of a standard, six-story office building as a portion of the development, the three interlocking biospheres, ranging in height from 80 to 95 feet, will total 65,000 square feet of flexible, five-story, transparent office space. Structurally sound by virtue of their form, the spheres will have exteriors composed of multilayered glass supported by
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a metal framework and will be located in a larger semi-public green space, the figurative center of the high-profile complex. Plantings within the spheres will have native flora, controlled air quality, and contribute to a healthy work environment, and the volumes are intended to allow the planting of matured local trees. Retail spaces will anchor the ends of the biosphere complex, serving to connect the campus to the community and vitalize the streetscape. Like other major global brands, such as Facebook, Apple, and Adobe, Amazon’s new campus will be at once iconic, functional, and enviable. gb&d —Benjamin van Loon
The spheres, designed to LEED Gold specifications, have a volume to allow the planting of fully matured trees from high elevation climates that thrive in temperatures between 68 and 72 degrees.
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PUNCH LIST
Three 37-story towers will surround the biospheres, and the entire fiveacre Denny Triangle development will eventually comprise 3.3 million square feet of usable space.
The largest of the three spheres will be 130 feet in diameter and have an interior volume of 1.15 million cubic feet. The smallest will be around 80 feet in diameter with a volume of 268,082.6 cubic feet.
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Index Advertisers
A American Hydrotech, 126 hydrotechusa.com 800.877.6125
Integrated Art Group, 95 integratedartllc.com 608.882.1400
R Reed Hilderbrand, 116 reedhilderbrand.com 617.923.2422
Syska Hennessy Group, 121 syska.com 212.921.2300
Aramark, 120 aramark.com 800.999.8989
International Roofing Expo, 74 theroofingexpo.com 972.536.6452
Rushing, 53 rushingco.com 206.285.7100
T The Hankin Group, 29 hankingroup.com 610.458.1900
Automated Logic, 131 automatedlogic.com 770.429.3000
J JE Dunn Construction, 31 jedunn.com 602.443.2660
R Siemens, 85 siemens.com +49.69.797.6660
Timan Window Treatments, 43 timanwindowtreatments.com 440.331.0189
B Boston Architectural College, 95 the-bac.edu 617.585.0101
K Kensington Investment Company, 107 kicboston.com 601.790.3900
Soderstrom Architects, 23 sdra.com 503.228.5617
TMR Engineering, 113 tmrengineering.com 703.525.6268
Bradley Corporation, 116 bradleycorp.com 800.272.3539
Kramer Management Group, 120 kramermg.com 517.702.6166
Stafford King Wiese Architects, 85 skwarchitects.com 916.930.5900
TRO Jung/Brannen, 28 trojungbrannen.com 617.502.3400
C Cooper Lighting, 39 cooperlighting.com 770.486.4800
L LiveRoof, 113 liveroof.com 616.842.1392
Stroud Water Research Center, 73 stroudcenter.org 610.268.2153
U USGBC, 4, 87 usgbc.org 800.795.1747
Cree, 147 cree.com 919.313.5300
LiveWall, 113 livewall.com 877.554.4065
Suffolk Construction, 28 suffolkconstruction.com 617.445.3500
E Epic Metals, 3 epicmetals.com 412.351.3913
Lutron, 113 lutron.com 610.282.3800
Erlab, 95 erlab.com 978.948.2216
M M&E Engineers, 25 meengineers.com 908.526.5700
Excel Dryer, 148 exceldryer.com 413.525.4531
Mitsubishi Electric, 131 mitsubishielectric-usa.com 714.220.2500
G GI Energy, 36 gienergy.net 630.323.5753
MPW Engineering, 29 mpwengineering.com 918.582.4088
Golden Triangle Construction, 23 gtc1.net 303.772.4051
Munters, 31 munters.us 800.843.5360
Goulston & Storrs, 131 goulstonstorrs.com 617.482.1776
N Nason Construction, 73 nasonconstruction.com 302.529.2800
Greenbuild, 2 greenbuildexpo.org 800.795.1747
Noritake Associates, 25 noritakeassociates.com 703.739.9366
H HOK, 36 hok.com 314.754.4317
P Pacific Coast Civil, 43 pacificcoastcivil.com 877.722.4845
Houston Advanced Research Center, 85 harc.edu 281.367.1348
Permaloc, 96 permaloc.com 616.399.9600
I IMT Architecture + Design, 121 imtarchdesign.com 410.919.3197
Powers Creative, 121 443.717.4800
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november窶電ecember 2013
145
PUNCH LIST
On the Spot Jason F. McLennan
The creator of the Living Building Challenge recommends Howard Zinn and recalls the Aurora Borealis at age ten
One book everyone should read
Building you’d save if the world was ending
Smartphone app you’re always using
A People’s History of
As much as I like buildings, if the world was ending, I wouldn’t be focused on inanimate objects— only on the last few moments with the people I love.
Maps.
the United States [by Howard
Zinn]. Favorite mode of transportation
My own two feet.
Print news source you hope will never die I don’t think in those terms, but probably National
Geographic. Favorite place you’ve traveled
Social media—helping or hurting
Too many to mention actually. I do love European
Most impactful experience in nature
Both. As with any technology, it’s all in how its
cities.
Standing on my Aunt Rita’s island in Northern
Cause you’d support with a billion dollars
Ontario when I was 10 and watching the Aurora Borealis light up the night sky.
used.
The perfect city would have
I’d find a way to leverage that kind of
resource into a greater amount and to fund projects with high impact in areas of the environment and social justice.
A beautiful walkable core with amazing
architecture and art.
The boldest idea in sustainable design Currently the boldest idea in sustainable design is
An article you recently shared I just finished writing an article with my good
friend Bill Reed called “Regenerating the Whole” published in the last issue of Trim Tab Magazine. It’s an important message for moving our profession forward. The thought or idea that centers you The thought of
home and time in the outdoors.
Your topic if you were asked to give a TED TalK Living Buildings and the Future of
Multiple places all over the world from people we
146
november–december 2013
The first step toward becoming a steward of the environment Simply spending time in nature and reconnecting
with it.
Civilization.
The next big idea will come from
don’t expect it from.
the Living Building Challenge—the most stringent and progressive green-building program in the world. The Challenge asks projects to move from a paradigm of being “less bad” to asking how we can be regenerative with every single act of design and construction.
The one question industry professionals should always be asking themselves
One technology on the horizon that can change the world I think cheaper and more efficient photovoltaics
are on the horizon, and we are getting closer to a tipping point where it becomes the cheaper alternative, which changes everything. Trend you hope will never go out of fashion Moving to net-zero energy and beyond, a world of
Living Buildings. What you’d pitch to President Obama if you had 30 seconds A 30 second pitch doesn’t change much, so I’d
use it to convince him to spend a day with me and we’d discuss how to radically change our buildings and cities while remaking our economy to be better for people and the planet.
How do I create a better world with every single
What you’d tell the green movement if it was your child
design project?
Have patience, things always change.
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photos: Paul Dunn
Twitter feed you tell everyone about I hate Twitter.
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