How UL Environment’s certifications bring scientific rigor and transparency to the green building market Seven boundary pushing healthcare facility designs G R E E N B U I L D I N G & D E S I G N M A R C H+A PR I L 2015
Guest edited by Lisa Meier
An inside look at the WELL Building Standard: the next generation of sustainable design
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
In This Issue gb&d March+April 2015 Volume 6, Issue 32
PHOTO: DENMARSH PHOTOGRAPHY, INC.
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Typology: Healthcare Facilities
Three hospitals that are strengthening the connection between the patient, the facility, and the environment
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60
70
The authors of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture explain their favorite healthcare designs from the past few years
The WELL Building Standard takes today’s emphasis on lifestyle-oriented and preventative approaches to health and apply that way of thinking to the built environment
A look inside how UL Environment’s GREENGUARD and ECOLOGO certifications bring scientific rigor and transparency to the green building market
Robin Guenther & Gail Vittori
Building WELL
Unlocking UL
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UL Environment in the Field
Tremco’s lowemitting sealants and waterproofing materials achieve UL’s certifications and sync adjacent but often unconnected building elements
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Table of Contents gb&d March+April 2015 Volume 6, Issue 32
Up Front
12 Guest Editor Lisa Meier 14 Editor’s Picks Humans and health 16 Product Spotlight American Dryer’s
ExtremeAir CPC
18 Defined Design Warren Woods Ecological
Field Station
20 Notebook Top Marks 22 Event Preview Living Future 2015
Trendsetters
Inner Workings
36 Planetree, Inc.
50 Madison Park House A custom-built home holds
How patient-centric care is changing hospital design
40 Browntrout A restaurant in Chicago
focuses on sustainability
42 Garrison Architects A new emergency housing prototype brings the neighborhood together
the hillside up
53 C3 Prefab A high-performance hybrid
packs a big punch
56 The Living Home
Greenbuild’s modern prefab demonstration house gets a permanent home in NOLA
PHOTO: TIM BIES
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Spaces
80 Riveting in Richmond A multi-use project nods to
84
Rosie the Riveters
An Atypical Building in a Typical Office Park A new HQ in CO stands out among its surroundings
92 Family Ranch Revamp An architecture industry
veteran pioneers a green paradise
96 Ruthless Efficiency A Passive House presents a
low-energy lifestyle
88 Making Connections This LEED Gold office
PHOTOS: RAUL J. GARCIA
space shines
“We live 90 percent of our time indoors, but there are many health benefits to being outside and part of nature. With biophilic design, we’re trying to marry the two.” 107 gb&d
Next
Punch List
100 Wise Investment Water conservation takes
112 Person of Interest Fernando Arias
centerstage in Chicago
103 Turning Waste Into Resources The creation of fertilizer,
energy, and jobs
106 Bringing the Outside in Walgreens employs
114 On the Boards Nyt Hospital Nordsjælland 116 Material World ECOR 118 On the Spot Lisa Meier
biophilic design
109 Michigan Gets Greener A massive solar array atop
a very large IKEA
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7
UP FRONT
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Editor’s Note Chris Howe
When we sat down to brainstorm the stories that would fill this Humans and Health issue outside of our fascinating features on UL Environment and the WELL Building Standard, our team was constantly inspired by the myriad of people working toward a world that will make Earth’s inhabitants healthier. Much of our research and many of our interviews centered on exciting developments within the healthcare sphere. In our story on Planetree, an organization that’s defining what it means to be a patient-centric hospital, we spoke with Planetree director of business and product development, Lisa Platt, and Joanne Muzzey, director of patient advocacy and Planetree at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital—one of Planetree’s seven coveted “designated-with-distinction” sites—about how participatory design can not only improve a patient’s experience but also reinvigorate a hospital’s staff (p. 36). We also asked Gail Vittori and Robin Guenther, the authors of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture, to share their favorite designs from the past few years (p. 45). The results brought us healthcare sites that are a far cry from the drab, depressing stereotypes that have unfortunately become the norm for what we associate with the word “hospital.” They captured much of the essence of what we wanted to do with this issue in one quote when they said, “We believe that decisions associated with the design, construction, and operation of our built environment is one of the most influential human endeavors relative to human health.” Our team at gb&d couldn’t agree more. But we also took the Humans and Health theme to a literal level when we learned about how American Dryer’s new patented technology doesn’t just dry your hands (and save you obvious paper towel dollars), but also kills germs via amazing developments in the usage of cold plasma (p. 16). Our talk with sustainable restaurant owner Sean Sanders also gave us insights about how eating healthy and gb&d
local can not only improve our bodies but also our economies (p. 40). Even our editor’s picks feature an office desk that gives you the option to stand while working and a snack delivery service that brings nutritious (and delicious) options right to your door. Toward the back of this issue, you’ll find Fernando Arias, our current “Person of Interest” (p. 112), who told us that his career goals hinge on raising people’s quality of life. He’s now doing so by spearheading ASID’s latest education and technology platform, which will help roughly 40,000 designers and architects make smarter design decisions about projects, materials, and building components that place occupant health and wellness first. From industry standards to the latest products and trends, there’s a lot out there to sift through, and his work will simplify this process for thousands of industry professionals. I hope that this issue of gb&d will help you do the same thing. Sincerely,
Chris Howe, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
ON THE COVER The CBRE office, the world’s first completed office space to achieve WELL certification under the pilot program, features a visually arresting staircase that motivates employees to take the stairs and skip the elevator. Just one of many WELLNESS-infused elements in the space.
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Editor’s Note Laura Heidenreich
As I began to ponder the theme of this issue—Humans and Health—I couldn’t keep my mind from the final day of Greenbuild 2014. As I watched the new USGBC president Roger Platt invite industry leaders Bob Berkebile, Scott Horst, Martha Jane Murray, Tom Paladino, Peter Templeton, Kath Williams, Alex Wilson, and David Gottfried to join him on stage in New Orleans back in October, I was inspired like never before. It was Gottfried, though, who truly stuck with me in the months following the conference. He touched on his idea of “LEED for Life”— taking the concept of LEED and applying its best-in-class practices to everyday living for a greater purpose and legacy, more satisfaction, and a life that both gives back and feels well-lived. I recently watched a video on his website in which Gottfried asks, “What’s a life of purpose and legacy? How do we make this life incredible? How do you use every second to put points on the board, and how do you define those points? Is it fun, is it happiness, is it health … is it wealth, is it greatness, is it legacy, is it stewardship?” He describes how everyone needs a cer-
10
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tain wealth and income, but what’s more important is the satisfaction and level of contentness we all feel in our day-to-day lives. What it really comes down to for Gottfried, and for us here at Green Building & Design, is balance. In his Living Balance Sheet, the USGBC founder states that, “Your business is your life and your life is your business. Balance is key.” But as we learned at Greenbuild, Gottfried’s insights on the concept of balance go so much further than keeping your money in check. For me, the concept of Humans and Health is defined by balance—the built environment industry must find the equilibrium between creating buildings that are healthy and green, as well as buildings that make the humans going about their daily business inside of them healthier, too. With that also comes an utter necessity to balance work life with the rest of life and the need to incorporate health across all aspects of living. As you will read on p. 60, the WELL Building Institute is doing just that by creating a certification system that doesn’t judge a building’s mark on the world, but its influence on the people that occupy it on a daily basis. As you can see on our cover, the CBRE office—the world’s first WELL-certified commercial office—features a visually arresting staircase one couldn’t help but skip the elevator for. CBRE also boasts a room dedicated to stretching, filtered-water stations throughout the space, nutritious food choices, indoor plants, and more. It is this balance between being at work and experiencing the perks and comforts of the outdoors, your own home, or the gym, that will lead those in the built environment industry and beyond to happier, healthier lives. Hopefully this issue can be a source of inspiration that will help you do just that.
gb&d
®
Green Building & Design gbdmagazine.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Christopher Howe chris@gbdmagazine.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Laura Heidenreich laura@gbdmagazine.com MANAGING EDITOR
Amanda Koellner amanda@gbdmagazine.com ART DIRECTOR
Michael Bodor EDITORIAL INTERN
Vincent Caruso MARKETING DIRECTOR
Jenny Maraccini jenny@gbdmagazine.com CLIENT SERVICES DIRECTOR
Krystle Blume krystle@gbdmagazine.com ACCOUNT MANAGERS
Colleen Kelley, Hillary Thornton CONTRIBUTORS
Brian Barth, Rebecca Falzano, Jeff Link, Julie Schaeffer, Patrick Sisson, Darnell Wilburn MAIL
Green Building & Design 1765 N. Elston Ave. Suite 202B Chicago, IL 60642
Sincerely,
Laura Heidenreich, Associate Publisher
Please recycle this magazine
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Typology Trendsetters Inner Workings Features Spaces Next Punch List
gb&d
12 Guest Editor
UL Environment general manager and vice president Lisa Meier
14 Editor’s Picks
Our recommendations for making happier, healthier humans
16 Product Spotlight
American Dryer’s patented CPC technology kills germs on the spot
18 Defined Design
Inside the first Passive House-certified laboratory in North America
20 Notebook
Highlights from the Holicm Awards
22 Event Preview
Living Future unConference, set to happen in Seattle this April
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UP FRONT
12
march–april 2015
gbdmagazine.com
UP FRONT
Guest Editor Lisa Meier
IN CONVERSATION with Lisa Meier
With a rich background in business and electronics, Lisa Meier was well equipped for a professional transition into the world of sustainability when she accepted her current job as UL Environment general manager and vice president back in 2012. But that doesn’t necessarily mean she was pining for a position in the big wide world of all things green. “I didn’t seek out the sustainability space,” she says. “But now that I have been here long enough to get pretty confident in the bigger conversations, I’m amazed at what opportunity there is and the value of driving this global mission.” At UL, Meier brought together key acquisitions that supported the formation of her Environment business unit (one of five under the broader UL umbrella), which has a mission of promoting global sustainability, environmental health, and safety by supporting the growth and development of environmentally preferable products, services, and organizations by way of technical expertise, lab services, market intelligence, and software solutions. Before she became responsible for driving the continued growth and globalization of the UL Environment sector, she worked as the president of the North America division and global group managing director of Binatone Electronics—a privately held consumer electronics manufacturer. Prior to that, she served as president of the consumer network solutions business unit for Thompson (now known as Technicolor), an $8.5B technology leader in the media and entertainment sector. Meier couldn’t have been a better fit for this issue—as her expertise sits at the cross-section of good business practices and the ways in which they can promote healthier humans. Plus, one of this issue’s big features centers on how UL Environment is bringing scientific rigor and transparency to the green building market (see below).–Amanda Koellner, managing editor
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mance of materials, UL’s focus on safety testing has expanded to
greater transparency regarding the environmental perfor-
include environmental product assessments and certifications.
Green Building Council (USGBC) and its LEED rating system have
driven interest in green building products and the desire for
the company’s focus has long been to promote safe living and
working environments. In the past 20 years, however, as the US
shock hazards at the time of the public adoption of electricity,
By Jeff Link
product safety. Beginning with laboratory testing of fire and
Founded in 1894 by William Henry Merrill, UL (formerly known
A look inside how UL Environment’s GREENGUARD and ECOLOGO certifications are bring scientific rigor and transparency to the green building market
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FEATURES HUMANS & HEALTH
FEATURES HUMANS & HEALTH
as Underwriters Laboratories) has a long history of promoting
FEATURES
A
LEFT SHANGRI LA et, sum asperro doluptatur maionsed molorrum faccuptur, sequi dis consequam dolorem quo qui re num dolum
new car. A new carpet. That pressed wood dresser in your urban loft. They smell so fresh and so clean. And they are—sort of. But that characteristic scent they emit derives from something less physiologically pleasing: volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are carbon-based chemicals that evaporate quickly at room temperature and contribute to poor indoor air quality and smog. Studies by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other researchers have found that VOCs are common in indoor environments and that their levels may be two to 1,000 times higher than outdoors. Add up the hours people spend indoors: sleeping, eating,
“More than a decade ago, UL realized to best promote its commitment to safety, it needed to incorporate the environment and health within that definition. Safety is meant to encompass not only physical safety—you won’t find electrical devices shocking you anymore—it’s meant to capture something that has actual merit today,” says Paul Firth, UL Environment’s manager of science and research. “When you put an environmental standard out there and a manufacturer sees recognition from the industry—look UL published statistics on that—they say, ‘What do I need to do to achieve that standard?’” UL is now the exclusive provider of GREENGUARD Certification for products that meet stringent chemical emissions requirements, and ECOLOGO Certification for products that meet multi-attribute, life cycle-based sustainability standards. UL also offers single-attribute environmental claims validations, waste to landfill validation, Environmental Product Declarations, and organizational sustainability certifications. UL’s GREENGUARD and ECOLOGO are referenced in more than 900 sustainable product specifications and purchasing guidelines that cover tens of thousands of products ranging from building materials, office furniture, and paints to baby cribs, electronics, and mobile phones. Led by Carlos Correia, president of supply chain and sustainability for UL and a team of research scientists, UL Environment, a division of the parent company that emerged in 2009, is enabling manufacturers to capture value for their sustainability efforts, helping bring lower polluting products to market, and lending transparency to a crowded and often misleading green marketplace. “Demand for these certifications and transparency documents has led to manufacturing changes that have resulted in a reduction of cancer causing chemicals on product surfaces and have given companies a platform to communicate what they’ve done,” Firth says. march–april 2015
FEATURES HUMANS & HEALTH
working in offices or at school—about 90%, according to X—and VOC exposure becomes a genuine cause for concern, among not just environmental advocacy groups and health agencies, but also building contractors, architects, and manufacturers. “Indoor air quality is always going to be at the forefront of what we do,” says Amy Woodard, product steward and regulatory compliance officer at Tremco, a Cleveland-based supplier of roofing, sealant, weatherproofing, and passive fire control materials for commercial and residential construction and industrial applications. “It is important to protect the health of the occupants of any building we are building.”
Founded in 1928 and employing more than 2,000 people, Tremco specializes in products that reduce air flow in and out of buildings: urethane and silicone sealants, deck coatings, waterproofing membranes, window glazings, and other specialty coating systems. Minimizing thermal loss is good for the environment and reduces energy bills. A win-win, as they say. Yet, when it comes to minimizing indoor air pollution, sealants pose particular challenges. While chemical emissions from VOCs may come from all manner of things—building products, furnishings and furniture, flooring, cabinetry, paint, and textiles—sealants, which are typically solvent-based, are among the worst culprits.
Depending on the type of pollutant, its concentration, the duration of exposure, and the individual sensitivities of those exposed, VOC emissions from these materials can lead to immediate health effects, such as headaches, fatigue, and allergic reactions, and more serious health problems, including respiratory problems and cancer. Woodard works closely with her research and development team and product specialists from UL Environment to ensure Tremco products do not pose such health risks. A total of 64 Tremco products meet the GREENGUARD Gold Certification standard, UL Environment’s most rigorous standard for low indoor air emissions of VOCs, which complies with California Department of Public Health emissions
every three years, costs between $1,000– 1,500. Once certified, companies (like Tremco) can display the GREENGUARD logo on their website and marketing materials to promote the sustainability and safety of their products. Woodard said the partnership between Tremco and UL Environment has been extremely beneficial, not only by helping Tremco fulfill client demand for low-emitting sealants and waterproofing materials, but also by familiarizing her with the evolving codes, requirements, and certification protocols of a complex industry. “They have been incredibly helpful to me as a new employee in getting to understand their process and services and what they mean,” Woodard says.
low-emitting sealants and UL Environment Tremco’s waterproofing materials achieve in the Field GREENGUARD Gold Certification
Sustainable Solutions Tremco builds bridges between adjacent but often unconnected building elements—a both logical and necessary set of offerings
FOR WHEN YOU NEED A ONE-STOP-SHOP … PRODUCT: Proglaze ETA FUNCTION: Proglaze ETA is a transition assembly composed of pre-engineered, finished aluminum and silicone materials that comes in handy when builders are looking at irregular window geometries or when inspectors need to see through the gasket to verify that a project has the proper amount of sealant (thanks to its translucent silicone material). It renders Tremco a convenient, one-stop-stop for designers and builders. IN PRACTICE: The design and construction teams working on the Naval Hospital
69
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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT 1. Unlocking UL, p. 70 2. Sustainable Solutions, p. 76 3. On the Spot, p. 119
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FOR WHEN YOU WANT TO AVOID CRACKS AND YELLOWING FROM THE SUN …
Replacement Project at Camp Pendleton needed assurance that the construction process could not only meet government speculations but also demonstrate performance throughout required warranties and beyond, which Proglaze ETA provided. “While it’s our desire to use small business in our subcontractor selection, it’s a great benefit for a complete product assembly to be provided by a sole source,” says Craig Winters, CQ Superintendent on the Clark/McCarthy Joint Venture on the project. “If you provide more scope to a manufacturer and have a problem or a question, you only have to go to one source for assistance. There’s less confusion, less ambiguity, and you avoid overlap of products or solutions.”
FOR WHEN YOU’RE BATTLING ENERGY LOSS DUE TO WEATHER … PRODUCT: ExoAir T3 Solutions
PRODUCT: Dymonic 100 FUNCTION: This highly versatile sealant has the unique ability to adhere to damp and green concrete. It’s also paintable and won’t crack, craze, or yellow under extreme UV exposure. An added bonus? It’s jet-fuel resistance. Even after a year, Dynomic 100 extended 100% when tested in the lab. IN PRACTICE: This sealant withstood UV radiation and weathering during rigorous testing, meaning the likelihood that it will maintain its integrity and provide long-lasting protection against air and moisture infiltration without cracks is huge.
FUNCTION: Throughout the seasons, energy moves through the walls—be it cool air lost to the outside in the summer or warm air in the winter. In the winter, the 50% average heat loss experienced in traditional buildings can be totally avoided with this sealant (which solves issues of varying window types, size, and geometry and plane changes when surfaces bond). IN PRACTICE: Multi-family housing projects benefit most from this solution, as an airtight and thermal bridge-free envelope ensures heat (and ensures that energy generated in a building isn’t
wasted). Plus, these types of projects also must take acoustical, firestopping, and air-sealing requirements into consideration. This holistic approach to wall-system design also surpassed even Passive House standards when tested, leaving sufficient room for anything that might come up during actual construction conditions. gb&d
EXCLUSIVE EXTRAS To see more Tremco products, download the iPad edition or visit gbdmagazine.com.
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PUNCH LIST
This issue’s guest editor, vice president and general manager of UL Environment, responds to our questionnaire and reminds us that our children can be both the motivation for and drivers behind a more sustainable planet in the future.
THE PERFECT CITY WOULD HAVE
THE NEXT BIG IDEA WILL COME FROM
Our children.
TOPIC IF YOU WERE ASKED TO GIVE A TED TALK
The power of passion: follow it.
BUILDING YOU WOULD SAVE IF THE WORLD WAS GOING TO END
Not a building, but a monument—the Statue of Liberty because it’s a universal symbol of freedom and liberty and was a gift of friendship.
A CENTURY FROM NOW, HUMANITY WILL
Collectively prioritize safe food and water to feed the masses.
WAY TO MAKE THE ENVIRONMENT A NONPARTISAN ISSUE
Start with a non-partisan approach. Together pick the topic and agree to attack it.
BUILDING TREND YOU HOPE WILL NEVER GO OUT OF FASHION
Classic Architecture
SOCIAL MEDIA, HELPING OR HURTING?
Helping to spread a useful message, when the message/topic is supported with the correct facts/science and you are targeting the appropriate audience
PHOTO: DARNELL WILBURN
MOST MEMORABLE MENTOR OR TEACHER
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77
PUNCH LIST
On the Spot Lisa Meier
Clean air, clear water, renewable energy, green grass, and trees.
PHOTO: DARNELL WILBURN
guidelines for schools and health care buildings. GREENGUARD Gold Certification also ensures Tremco’s products meet regional and state regulations, such as those adopted from the stringent South Coast Air Quality Management District of Los Angeles, and indoor air quality guidelines that require third party product testing and evaluation such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system. “We look at all of these factors when we develop our products. They help drive R&D formulation to make sure we stay competitive in the market,” Woodard says. Initial certification testing for a product family runs in the ballpark of $10,000, and recertification, which typically takes place
gbdmagazine.com
Robert Giordano for whom I worked when I first started out my career. He made you push the boundaries of what you thought was possible.
FAVORITE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION
Walking.
HARSHEST CRITICISM YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED
To hold back on my enthusiasm for a given topic. It can lead a team to conclusions.
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INDUSTRY JARGON YOU WOULD BAISH
Overly complicated industry acronyms.
WASTEFUL HABBIT YOU’RE TRYING TO KICK
Insomnia.
MOST COMPELLING ARGUMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP
We only have one planet—we want it and its resources to be available to our children and our children’s children.
GREATEST PROFESSIONAL PET PEEVE
Calling a meeting that concludes with the action to hold another meeting. Just make a decision.
YOUR PERSONAL DEFINITION OF SUSTAINABILITY
Convservation
IN CONVERSATION with Lisa Meier Continued from p. 19
has acquired several companies in the past three years. Many of them were already LEED-certified, and some are going through the process now. So we certainly promote this idea that we, ourselves, have to revisit sustainability and that we’re following what we’re trying to sell and communicate. We’re also continually going through the process of revisiting our priorities. Even today, UL is going through a whole review with our most senior leaders, including our CEO, to revisit our CSR strategy and make sure that it is consistent and relevant with where we are today and in line with the best practice we promote. The space and the initiatives are always evolving, and once you feel like you’ve achieved something, you need to raise the bar again—and that’s part of our normal process. It makes you feel very confident and makes you know that when you’re talking to a customer, you’re not just telling them a story. We truly live by what we are communicating and what we’re helping our customers better understand and communicate on behalf of their own brand.
ENVIRONMENTAL COME-TO-JESUS MOMENT
Understanding the effects our actions could be having on the health of our children.
THE BOLDEST IDEA IN SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
Aiming beyond just net-zero to net-positive in terms of sustainability.
MOST MEANINGFUL PROJECT YOU’VE COMPLETED
All of our initiatives to help raise awareness of bad air quality—in particular, air quality in schools, as it affects our children.
“We truly live by what we are communicating and what we’re helping our customers better understand and communicate on behalf of their own brand.”
PUBLICATION YOU HOPE WILL NEVER DIE
National Geographic; my daughter can’t wait for the next month’s publication to arrive.
MOST FULFILLING HOBBY
Traveling with my family.
ONE QUESTION INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS SHOULD ALWAYS BE ASKING THEMSELVES
Have I done enough to make an impact?
MOST COMMON GREEN MYTH
Green is more expensive and it probably doesn’t work as well.
CAUSE YOU’D SUPPORT IF YOU HAD A BILLION DOLLARS
Education—investing in science.
CURRENT PROJECT YOU’RE MOST EXCITED ABOUT
Supply chain transparency initiatives with some of our biggest clients
MOST IMPACTFUL EXPERIENCEIN NATURE
No lights, no cars, and silence deep in the canyons and looking up at the stars in the middle of the night—so bright you can hardly focus.
gb&d: Does UL put its offices and its spaces through the same testing that it does for other clients? And do you use products that you’ve ceritified in these workspaces as well? Meier: Yes it does, absolutely. Can we do more of it? Absolutely, and the company has recognized that. And yes, we also promote that we use or own certified products. When customers have come to us to get their products certified, we always consider those products when we’re remodeling or changing locations. In our Marietta [,Georgia] office, everything has been GREENGUARD certified and LEED-certified. We certainly promote it, but as any company can do better, we try to reach a new high. gb&d
THE THOUGHT OR IDEA THAT CENTERS YOU
What my children have to look forward to. gb&d
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115
PART 1 HISTORY + TRUST gb&d: I was fascinated in my research of UL to learn that the company’s first standard was a fire extinguisher label put in place in 1903. How does it feel to work for a company with such a rooted history? Lisa Meier: I’ve worked with some really big brands in the past that I’m proud of—RCA, GE, Motorola, etc. None of them have the same kind of history and trust associated to safety that makes you feel this proud. I joined not knowing the value of the brand. And my position today continues to grow with the message and the team. Everyone in the organization believes in that mission and history that started 120 years ago. You watch how it continues to evolve, and it makes you want it to evolve even more. Very quickly, people associate trust with the brand, which is a powerful place to be. It feels good. gb&d: My next question was actually going to center around this trust, as it appears to be an important running theme within the UL Environment brand—the trusted transparency and trusted global reputation. Do you think this trust comes from the history? Do you think the change that UL is impacting comes from that level of trust? Meier: I would say yes, it comes with the history, but the history is just a piece of it. If you look at how the definition of safety is evolving—it’s part of UL’s communication on the topic and its forward-thinking vision. In the past 15 years, it’s started to evolve and continues to evolve to support a much bigger definition based on how people communicate what safety means to them. So there’s that opportunity to capitalize on, but there’s also a piece that goes with the science that UL tries to communicate consistently and that it maintains on the highest level. It’s great to know that that level of trust is really backed by the science. To the second part, I would say yes— The conversation continues on p. 16
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UP FRONT
Editor’s Picks For Healthier Humans
14
PRODUCT WORKRITE WORKCENTERS
SNACK NATUREBOX
(Pictured) With sit-stand capabilities, this workstation gives those tied to a desk all day the option to raise and lower the piece. Available in three contemporary finishes, it comes in a wide range of mix and match feature options for total customization. workriteergo.com
Delivered on a monthly subscription basis, NatureBox allows you to customize your order at any time from an assortment of more than 100 deliciously wholesome options. Membership starts at just $19.95 per month. naturebox.com
march–april 2015
RESOURCE UL’S SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT GUIDE A free resource that connects you to third-party certified products you can trust, this guide is searchable by sustainability credit, manufacturer, product category, or certification type. productguide. ulenvironment.com
BOOK CREATIVE CONFIDENCE
PLACE HAWORTH’S BEIJING SHOWROOM
PERSON AARON SMITH
From IDEO founder and Stanford d.school creator David Kelley and his brother Tom Kelley (IDEO partner and best-selling author) comes an expertly written book proving that there are no “creative types,” for we all hold that power within. creativeconfidence.com
This is the first LEED v4 Certified Building, and as our guest editor Lisa Meier says, it’s not only built sustainably, but also serves as a meeting space for sustainability focused groups. haworth.com
Also suggested by our guest editor, Aaron Smith is the director of sustainable building solutions for ASSA ABLOY. Meier says, “He’s successfully engaged at so many critical levels in his firm’s sustainability efforts.” assaabloy.com
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UP FRONT
DRIES HANDS KILLS GERMS Cold Plasma Clean® technology kills: E.coli, Staph, MRSA, C.diff and Salmonella naturally without chemicals.* Cold Plasma Clean is our patented technology that does what no other hand dryer can do: It kills germs.* Can you imagine a restroom experience where germs are being eliminated and not spread? Just think of the impact on schools, airports, restaurants or anywhere germs are a concern. We thought it was time that a hand dryer did more than simply dry your hands; it’s why we invented the eXtremeAir cPc, the only hand dryer that also kills germs. To learn more about the eXtremeAir cPc, visit us at americandryer.com or call toll free 800.485.7003
gb&d march 2015 –april *Our EPA Establishment Number is 091022-MI-001. This product is not intended to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat or prevent any disease.
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Continued from p. 13
some of the trust comes from the history, but there are several components. There’s the trust, the history, the science, the facts, and quite honestly—the global reach, the areas that UL plays in today that support the definition of sustainability, that all comes into play. We’ve learned from some of our customers that as they look at their message in the market, many of them on a global scale, the number of global players that can support the message that our customers are trying to communicate is very limited. So when you add up all of these components together and look at our global footprint, quite honestly, we have a huge opportunity at UL to drive the message and the mission forward, as well as the mission of our customers.
“Everyone in the organization believes in that mission and history that started 120 years ago. You watch how it continues to evolve, and it makes you want it to evolve even more.”
Product Spotlight American Dryer’s ExtremeAir CPC By Vincent Caruso
A one-of-a-kind dryer, created with patented technology, kills germs on the spot and saves you money Washing your hands is a transient process. Whether as a precautionary flu season routine or after tending to nature’s call, we follow the deed with a habitual wash and dry regiment without a need to lend any mind to this automated routine. After all, the soap takes care of everything, right? In reality, there are a great variety of smaller factors at play. So small, in fact, that most are not detectable by the naked human eye, and thusly not made subject to our consideration and concern. It’s negligence without justification, and it’s one that oftentimes risks counteracting the sanitizing effects of washing your hands in the first place. Fortunately, to disinfect our conscience, American Dryer has introduced the ExtremeAir CPC hand dryer.
gb&d: UL was one of the first companies to start setting standards and certifications and obviously tons have followed. With that have come issues with “greenwashing.” How is UL combatting that problem? Meier: Greenwashing is a challenge. We did a study, which was recently released, titled “Under the Lens: Claiming Green,” that researched how people interpret some of the claims in the marketplace. We did find that many of the claims and messages being communicated were surrounded by a question of greenwashing. So we’re very sensitive to how we use the market and how that message comes across in promoting what the customer is trying to relay. It’s backed by science, and that science is promoting the brand we believe, which goes back to trust and standing by the message or the initiatives that the client is trying to promote. PART TWO BUSINESS BACKGROUND gb&d: Your work history sort of prepped you for this job in terms of experience, but did you ever see yourself working in the sustainability realm? How does it feel to be here? The conversation continues on p. 19
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MRSA Influenza
E. coli Up to
99.6 %
Salmonella
the dryer’s kill rate against
Staph
C. diff Odors
What is Cold Plasma?
Often referred to as the “fourth state of matter” and known for its germ-killing ability, cold plasma is ionized air that contains positively and negatively charged molecules.
How does it work here?
Those molecules attract and kill germs leaving a by-product of pure water vapor.
How long has it been around? Since the 1930s.
Where is it typically used?
In schools, hospitals, and other facilities to keep the air clean. More recently, it’s been used in the medical industry to treat surgical incisions and in the food processing industry to break down harmful microbes.
gbdmagazine.com
IMAGES COURTESY OF AMERICAN DRYER, INC.
IN CONVERSATION with Lisa Meier
UP FRONT
Beneath the cover of this hand dryer is a small generator that produces Cold Plamsa, splitting the water molecules in the air into oppositely charged hydrogen and oxygen ions.
By the Numbers $500 Retail cost per unit
98% Air Velocity:
Air Temperature:
19,000-10,000 135°F at 72°F linear feet/min. room temp. Sound Level:
Universal Voltage:
83-69 dB
100-240 V, 50/60 Hz
sales and marketing, Jim Fisher details, “splits water molecules in the air into oppositely charged hydrogen and oxygen ions.” Subsequently, as nature dictates, airborne germs are seized upon by these duty-bound ions and wholly erased from the equation in a revolutionary act of human sanitation. In addition to these great new strides for human health, planet earth too stands to gain from the ExtremeAir contraption. The speed-adjustable hand dryer “reduces power consumption to an industry-leading 500-300 watts,” trumpets Fisher, eclipsing competing “green” hand dryers by threefold, in effect helping us reduce the blotch of our fingerprints from the globe’s carbon footprint. gb&d
amount of potential savings when compared to paper towel costs
43% Smaller: the dryer is one of the most compact in the industry, coming in at nearly half the size of the average “industry standard” high-speed hand dryers
5 the number of finishes in which the dryer is available, including White ABS, Steel White Epoxy, Steel Black Graphite, Steel Satin Chrome, and Stainless Steel
10-12 number of seconds it takes to dry your hands with this model at its highest setting
35 the number of seconds the dryer will stay on when hands under the outlet, powered by an ultra energy-efficient, microprocessor-controlled sensor
200M Number of ions created every second by the dryer to kill germs
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UP FRONT
Defined Design Warren Woods Ecological Field Station
The University of Chicago’s Warren Woods Ecological Field Station, designed and built by GO Logic, isn’t only the first Passive House-certified laboratory in North America; it’s also the fifth in the entire world and the first outside of Germany. Impressive stats aside, the structure boasts a beautiful distressed wood exterior and a clean, contemporary interior to be enjoyed and utilized by the university’s Department of Ecology and Evolution for research projects and educational programs and classes, as well as departmental retreats and events. We chose three words to define GO Logic’s stunning, functional design. gb&d —Amanda Koellner
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Remote \ri-ˈmōt\ (adj.) Far away from other people, houses, cities, etc. Located on 42 acres of land adjacent to Warren Woods State Park in Berrien County, Michigan, this isolated research facility houses—in addition to a fully equipped laboratory—seminar space, bathrooms, a kitchenette, and three sleeping cabins.
Technical \ˈtek-ni-kəl\ (adj.) Relating to the practical use of machines or science in industry, medicine, etc. Building a complex laboratory in a humid environment comes with its fair share of challenges. High levels of occupancy by researchers and high levels of heat generated by research equipment (such as plant growth chambers, a -80°C freezer, an incubator, and tools for DNA extraction) had to be accounted for in order to reach Passive House certifications.
gbdmagazine.com
UP FRONT
IN CONVERSATION with Lisa Meier Continued from p. 16
Meier: I did not seek out the sustainability space, and before I joined UL Environment, I didn’t quite yet understand the value of sustainability. So when I was job searching, that wasn’t a top priority. Now that I’m here, I’ve gained a lot of knowledge. It’s amazing what I’ve learned and what I’ve been teaching my family. As we figure out avenues to do more of that type of education, we’ll see that acceleration and that transition of the mass to the other side. That’s what I get excited about because before, I did not know. Now that I’ve been in this space long enough to get pretty confident in some of the conversations, I’m amazed at what opportunity there is and the value of driving the mission as a global mission. That’s very exciting to me.
Overheat \-ˈhēt\ (verb) To heat to excess. Given the climate, GO Logic placed the laboratory on the comparatively cooler north face of the building and designed tall ceilings (made possible by the sloped roof structure) in the seminar space and private lounge, which are punctuated by an extensive solar glazing—oriented south.
ABOVE The floor, comprised of polished concrete slab, provides a thermal mass that helps control the interior temperature.
“I think we’ll all be learning for a long time. What’s even more challenging and exciting and what really breathes life into what we do is that sustainability touches every industry.” gb&d: Your background is really rooted in business, and it’s interesting to think about sustainability in terms of how it can save money and how important that can be. I was looking at UL Environment’s Twitter today and read a tweet that said, “Sustainability is not a gimmick; it’s a business necessity.” We still live in a world where climate change deniers are plentiful. Are you seeing more people who are accepting sustainable practices or maybe embracing them because they realizes it means better business and ample savings? Meier: Absolutely. It’s interesting; I had mentioned before what’s exciting for me is the opportunity to work across so many different industries. Some are much more based on sustainability and have embedded it as a part of everyday decision making. The automotive industry would be an example of that. Sustainability represents a huge chunk of decisions in the automotive space, and it can range quite broadly. That being said, they value the association to the word even more than other industries do that might not be on that same curve. I do see a huge opportunity. But coming from my background, what was interesting to me in the beginning—and The conversation continues on p. 21
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UP FRONT
Notebook Top Marks
The Holcim Awards honors the latest and greatest innovations in environmental design. Here’s what this year’s North American honorees are trying to achieve with theirs. By Brian Barth The Holcim Foundation, the charitable arm of one of the largest cement and aggregate suppliers in the world, hosted its annual North American awards ceremony last September, an event to honor the most cutting-edge ideas in sustainable construction on the continent. The awards’ $300,000 in prize money was split between 13 projects selected for their practical solutions to global environmental challenges, as well as an “embrace [of] architectural excellence and enhanced quality of life,” according to the program. We break down the innovations behind the top top three ideas. GOLD Poreform by the Water Pore Partnership Amy Mielke and Caitlin Gucker-Kanter Taylor, alumni of the Yale School of Architecture, won the top prize this year for their highly original approach to stormwater management, a construction technique called Poreform. Unlike many existing pervious concrete products out there, Poreform is a material designed with fabric forms that allow it to be sculpted into extensive topographic structures capable of intercepting runoff. Proposed as a solution to Las Vegas’s
dual flood-control and water-scarcity issues, Poreform is intended to be used for paving in the densest parts of the city, creating a sieve-like infrastructure over the urban landscape with open-ended architectural potential. Unlike the impervious surfaces that cover the majority of Las Vegas today, the highly textured surface of Poreform will absorb rainfall in the tiny rivulets of its textured surface, channeling it just below grade to larger “pores,” i.e. infiltration points, without sacrificing water to the evaporative effects of the hot desert sun. The diffuse network of smaller infiltration areas is part of an integrated collection system that ultimately channels all stormwater to a single underground chamber. The massive collection tank is an architectural element itself, intended to be publicly accessible in dry weather and proposed as an underground performing arts venue.
Poreform absorbs rainfall in the tiny rivulets of its textured surface, channeling it just below grade to larger “pores” before it evaporates. 20
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DETAILS Goal To convert impervious city surfaces into sieves, collecting and storing water on a large scale for municipal use Main Authors Amy Mielke and Caitlin Gucker-Kanter Taylor Site Las Vegas Planned Start Date 2016 Primary Materials Cement, flexible fiber forms Applications Civil engineering, urban design, stormwater management
SILVER Rebuilding By Design by Bjarke Ingels Group
In addition to winning the Silver award, the team at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has gotten loads of well-deserved applause for its flood-protection-infrastructure proposal for lower Manhattan, one of many dense urban areas at risk as sea levels rise. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, BIG answered the call for an environmentally sound solution to protect the existing urban fabric of the most flood-prone parts of New York gbdmagazine.com
UP FRONT
with a plan that not only serves as insurance on $1.9 billion dollars of real estate and infrastructure, but also creates a new belt of green space for the city with extensive recreational and economic opportunities. The 13-mile sequence of flood-protection landforms consists of numerous berms and storm-surge diffusion features but is vitally linked to each of the existing neighborhoods—rather than appearing as a single, austere, and imposing engineered structure. In some areas, this will take the form of open park areas and public boardwalks, while in others it will be integrated with new public spaces that have been proposed for the historically unappealing realm beneath the city’s many elevated highways. Each of these “Resilient Community Districts” are intended to manage their own stormwater, as well as other critical sustainability metrics, and are seen as the living building blocks of a livable, stormproof New York. BRONZE Hy-Fi Compostable Bricks by The Living
The Bronze went to David Benjamin, a New York City-based architect and Columbia University professor, who designed a structure for the Museum of Modern Art’s PS1 satellite site in Brooklyn using compostable bricks. Hy-Fi is a reference to hyphae, essentially the root structure of fungal organisms, also known as mycelium. Benjamin borrowed the process for manufacturing structurally sound bricks from Ecovative, a company that has recently introduced mush-
Hy-Fi effectively eliminates the need for environmentally insulation types by integrating this property with the building material.
DETAILS Goal To build with lightweight, biodegradable bricks made from waste materials using natural processes Main Authors David Benjamin Site Brooklyn, New York Completion 2014 Primary Materials Fungal mycelium, corn stalk residue, 3M reflective microfilm Applications Construction industry
gb&d
IN CONVERSATION with Lisa Meier Continued from p. 19
DETAILS Goal To buffer New York City from future storms and sea-level rise with civicminded green infrastructure Main Authors Consortium led by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) Site Lower Manhattan Planned Start Date 2015 Primary Materials Earthen berms, floodwalls, dissipation structures Applications Climate change infrastructure, resiliency planning, adaptive reuse
room-based packaging products. The bricks are made, basically, by pouring a slurry of chopped cornstalk waste into a brick mold and inoculating it with mycelium. The mixture expands, hardens, and has excellent insulative value when used as a construction material. It effectively eliminates the need for environmentally unfriendly fiberglass or foambased insulation by integrating this property with the building material. The bricks are extremely lightweight, which is a trait Benjamin used to his advantage in designing the curvilinear and seemingly top-heavy towers for the PS1 courtyard event space. Modeled on the concept of cooling towers, the structures draw cool air from the base and expel warm air from the open top, creating a continual breeze inside. The topmost portions of the structure are wrapped in an ultra-thin reflective microfilm designed by 3M, which transmits sunlight into the structure from above without using any exterior glazing. gb&d
is still interesting as an opportunity—is that I feel that I represent more than 90% of the population that is still trying to associate the value of sustainability and its impact and the business benefits as the biggest opportunity for us to identify how to relate to the masses. So you have five or 10% of the population who understands it and values it and talks a lot to each other. The opportunity now is to try to bring the rest of the masses along and figure out what are the key sensitizes that are personal to the majority of the people we can touch and truly accelerate that change.
“So you have five or 10% of the population who understands [sustainability] and values it and talks a lot to each other. The opportunity now is to try to bring the rest of the masses along and figure out what are the key sensitizes that are personal to the majority of the people we can touch and truly accelerate that change.” PART 3 LOOKING FORWARD/PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH gb&d: What would you say are UL Environment’s goals for the future? Does the company strive to have the standards become government mandated? Meier: We’re not pushing for anything to be government mandated, but we are working with governments—not just ours—to support information and science, so that’s a positive. We do see our place in bringing more clarity on a global scale. That’s where we see our biggest opportunity—to become the model for the best practices. gb&d: How does UL practice what it preaches in terms of the workplace? Are there initiatives in place within the company to abide by the standards of wellness and sustainability that it certifies and enforces? Meier: We have several buildings and UL The conversation continues on p. 119
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UP FRONT
Event Preview Living Future 2015 By Vincent Caruso
This non-profit elementary school, the Bertschi School Living Science Building, was one of the first projects to pursue the Living Building Challenge v2.0 criteria and the first to achieve it.
“If you’re working with deep sustainability in any way, you have to be in that room with these incredible pioneers.”
Shelter and physical comfort are just two of a variety of factors that define your relationship with your home, workplace, and other oft-frequented destinations. These places and their connection with the habitat in which they are erect, however, is a concept that sadly is often excluded from consideration when designed and further unobserved when inhabited. This year’s Living Future unConference aims to change that. Curated carefully under the theme of “place and community,” the 2015 gathering will explore ways habitable structures affect both humanity and the earth’s well being. Living Future global outreach vice president Eric Corey Freed defines a place in its truest sense as not merely a built habitable structure but one that operates in health and harmony with its imme-
DETAILS
What Living Future 2015 When April 1–3 Where Seattle Web living-future.org/unconference
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diate environment. “Places” exist, but places exist in mutual benefit with their community. By this measure, most places are not places, and thus the symposium’s common objectives: “restore natural ecosystems, re-establish a tie between humans and their nourishment, and encourage compact, connected communities that support a productive lifestyle.” The unConference is an annual gathering of enviro-vanguards wherein keynotes and attendees huddle en masse to openly discuss urgently overdue, yet tragically under-reported, proposed solutions to environmental woes under a selected theme, typically in the form of a virtuous duplet (past examples of pairings include “beauty & inspiration” and “resilience & regeneration”). And, while the name “unConference” might sound self-effacing, it is more accurately a self-aware wink at the unconventional nature of the program subject matter. Ideas exchanged are often divergent from political orthodoxy and introduced by speakers kept absent from the mainstream, rendering the event almost an alternative to the alternative—a micro-culture within a subculture. This ex-
change of uncommon knowledge should not be mistaken as fringe, however. The weekend consistently draws in more than 2,000 people, and this year’s distinguished lecturers include Brooklyn Academy for Science and the Environment co-founder Ibrahim Abdul-Matin and Janine Benyus, who penned Biomimicry, the definitive text on the subject. The Sheraton Seattle will host the 2015 Future Living (properly, the International Future Living Institute) unConference, and consistent with the Future Living credo, the Sheraton in 2009 was awarded as one of the Top 10 Green Hotels in the U.S. by the Mother Nature Network (MNN). gb&d gbdmagazine.com
PHOTO: BEN BENSCHNEIDER
Eric Corey Freed, Living Future global outreach vice president
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Typology Trendsetters Inner Workings Features Spaces Next Punch List
gb&d
HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
26 Lentz Public Health Center
A fresh design approach deals with the patient’s relationship to thier environment
28 Bridgepoint Active Healthcare
A hospital redesign focuses on health, healing, and happiness
32 Mercy West Hospital & Medical Center
Geography guided the team behind this eco-conscious facility
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While our impulses hesitate to call it an “industry,� that is, for better or worse, what the miscellany of medical services that economically represent the healthcare discipline precisely comprise. The most unconditionally trusted and urgently relied-upon institution fixed to this field is, perhaps, the hospital. Because of this surplus of invested confidence, it is important for the industry to maintain a constant cycle of experimentation and innovation. And with an added responsibility to incorporate environmental sustain-
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ability, the pressure on industry thinkers practically increases twofold. In a profession duty-bound to the revival and rehabilitation of human health, it is dually important that they themselves save energy to devote to the revival and rehabilitation of their own places of treatment. Here, Vincent Caruso explores three health centers that are remodeling the set of standards that define what it means to be involved in healthcare by strengthening the connection between the patient, the facility, and the environment. gbdmagazine.com
PHOTO: SAM JAVANROUH
HEALING
TYPOLOGY HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
DESIGN gb&d
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TYPOLOGY HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
Lentz Public Health Center Gresham, Smith and Partners
RIGHT Upon entrance, guests are welcomed with the sunlit greeting of a spacious, upbeat lobby teeming with fresh air and natural light.
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
BELOW The hospital offers better accessibility with sidewalks, a bus stop, and a B-cycle kiosk—Nashville’s bike share program.
The percentage that comprises inside air, meanwhile, is subject to the efforts of a radon mitigation system that eliminates completely the silently lurking carcinogenic gas that is known to trespass. The design, in addition, offered a fresh approach in dealing with the patient’s relationship with their environment. Upon entrance, guests are welcomed with the sunlit greeting of a spacious, upbeat lobby teeming with fresh air and natural light. In the clinic devoted to treating contagious diseases, a special HVAC system is employed to provide patients with 100% outside air supply. Collectively, these efforts rendered the facility, in its completed form, remarkably high performing and green-efficient. Lentz Public Health Center has registered for LEED certification and is anticipating Silver status.
PHOTOS: CHAD MELLON
Trampled under time’s merciless march, the aging Lentz Public Health Center building looked fairly unhealthy in its 50th year, suffering functional maladies any standing structure would so long as periodic upkeep and routine general maintenance were sufficiently ignored. Languished due to age, unmanageable water infiltration due to wilting, and air quality deterioration due to water infiltration, the facility nursed a daisy chain of issues that teetered on challenging the presiding department’s very name. With the aim of dramatic rehabilitation for optimal and progressive patient care, as well as reaching the ever-raising bar for environmental sustainability, the health center succeeded in landing a public-private partnership that catalyzed the development of an entirely new structure. Every decision that guided the design process was made with heed paid to its potential environmental impact. Surpassing building code requirements, the HVAC system supplies 30% more outside air than what bureau paperwork commands.
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TYPOLOGY HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
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TYPOLOGY HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
Bridgepoint Active Healthcare Stantec Architecture / KPMB Architects / HDR Architecture / Diamond Schmitt Architects TORONTO, ONTARIO
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PHOTOS: TOM ARBAN
Much has changed in the field of medicine since the construction of Old Don Jail and House of Refuge, the edifice that now plays host to Bridgepoint Active Healthcare in Toronto, Ontario. Evolutionary stages that hospitals have welcomed since Old Don’s heyday range from the commonsensical—such as desegregation and the smoking ban—to the more science-specific—like the discovery of DNA and introduction of vaccine treatments. More recently, in harmony with the awakening of our collective green consciousness, the industry has been actively engaged in research focused on the various ways patients may be affected by the very facilities they’re occupying. In the wake of a severe smallpox outbreak, Toronto made haste to transform The House of Refuge into an ad hoc medical isolation center in response to the unforeseen pestilence. And while the wooded seclusion—central to the facility’s treatments—was viewed as progressive for its time, the consensus of leading thinkers in the industry has swung out of favor of such practices. Rather, it has gbdmagazine.com
TYPOLOGY HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
BELOW The new Bridgepoint features a green roof (pictured here), as well as a ground floor that’s a publicly accessible “Urban Porch” with a Tim Hortons, Shoppers Drug Mart, multipurpose auditorium, library, and access to two outdoor terraces.
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RIGHT This 464-bed building is the largest and most advanced facility of its kind in Canada and features a therapy pool (pictured here), labyrinth, rehabilitation studios, and other therapy areas.
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PHOTO: SAM JAVANROUH
TYPOLOGY HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
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PHOTO: SAM JAVANROUH
TYPOLOGY HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
been suggested, the framework of medical treatment centers should pursue an environment that promotes the comfort of both privacy and unchallenging engagement with the community. Ultimately, the patient’s psychosocial condition, a factor once excluded from healthcare provisions, is boosted and patient outcomes are enhanced. Salutogenesis is a concept that was hatched by Aaron Antonovsky wherein attention is shifted from exploring the causes of negative conditions to probing the sources of patient health, healing, and happiness. The approach has stood sturdily against time’s current, and it was embraced gb&d
as dictum in renovating Bridgepoint’s wellness warrant. To succeed in institutional optimization, ironically, it was important to reduce the ambience of an institution in its stigmatized general sense. Imperative to this was encouraging social interaction among patients with access to public recreation areas such as a therapy pool, a sky garden and green roof, and a meditative labyrinth. Although many rooms in the former Old Don haunt didn’t have windows at all, in each patient room, remarkably large windows with views overlooking Don River Valley have been installed, uniting the patient with the familiar stomping grounds before them.
ABOVE Courtyards at different grades, each with a character of its own, provide patients and visitors with places to rest in solitude or to meet in groups. These courtyards also provide an ongoing fundraising resource for Bridgepoint, as each is sponsored by an individual donor.
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TYPOLOGY HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
Mercy West Hospital & Medical Center Champlin Architecture, Architecture Field Office, AECOM CINCINNATI, OHIO
To most, suggesting that access to healthcare is a matter of grave importance would be a stultifying statement of the obvious. Even more obvious? The consideration of healthcare accessibility in terms of physically identifying or entering the concrete structure that is the patient treatment center; it’s so exhaustively minute and semantic that the notion resides justifiably far away from our collective understanding of “accessibility” in these terms. In the case of Mercy West Hospital & Medical Center, however, the obstacles plaguing the facility—the remote location and uncertain visibility—were two handicaps made priority in the hospital’s redevelopment. With the intention of advancing progressive patient care measures as well as bedecking the facilities with state-of-the-art technologies, it was important that the hospital’s geography be tantamount in quality to the care offered by the institution. Migrating to remarkably more advantageous acreage, the untouched bucolic landscape upon
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which the center now rests gifts Mercy West with a newfound existence as eye candy to the commuters of traffic-heavy I-74. Buttressed by an 80-foot slope, the hospital’s design cleverly allows the capture and permeation of abundant natural light throughout the expanded interior of Mercy’s seven-story structure—a bond to nature that is increasingly found to be not supplemental, but necessary, to the patient experience. The eco-consciousness demonstrated by the refreshingly sensible design of the hospital has been invitation to praise and recognition since its doors reopened in 2013. Aloft the heads of Mercy occupants, for example, hovers 100,000 square feet of green overcast. While providing shelter from the mood swings of Mother Nature, the roof of the building reduces the use of energy with the installation of solar “tubular skylights.” Additionally, triple-paned glass insulation controls the thermal condition of the hospital, reducing the dependency of patients’ comfort on excessive energy consumption. gb&d
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TYPOLOGY HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
LEFT Designed to current accessibility standards, the site and interior design no longer impede those with physical disabilities.
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ABOVE M ercy Health knew that in order to serve more people, they needed to provide a new state-ofthe-art facility located on a major expressway with high visibility access.
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Typology Trendsetters Inner Workings Features Spaces Next Punch List
gb&d
36 Planetree, Inc.
How patient-centric care is changing hospital design
40 Browntrout
A Chicago restaurant focuses on sustainability and takes cues from New Zealand
42 Garrison Architects Quick-response, modular emergency
housing prototypes that are fast and flexible
The authors of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture take us through their favorite recent designs
45 Robin Guenther & Gail Vittori
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35
TRENDSETTERS
N OT- F O R - P R O F I T O R G A N I Z AT I O N
Planetree, Inc.
PHOTO: GEORGE LAMBROS OF LAMBROS PHOTOS
A conversation about participatory design and how Planetree’s model of patient-centered care is changing the way healthcare companies design their facilities By Amanda Koellner
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gbdmagazine.com
TRENDSETTERS
In 1978, Angelica Thieriot suffered a series of traumatic personal healthcare experiences that lacked compassion, despite providing her with grade-A clinical care. Unable to sit idly by, she founded Planetree, an organization that would go on to define what it means to be a patient-centric healthcare facility. What began as a kitchen table effort is now an organization with well over 500 affiliate members in 14 different countries throughout the world. “We span every type of healthcare entity, from acute to outpatient to continuing care, so it really runs the gambit of healthcare associations,” says Lisa Platt, director of business and product development at Planetree, noting that one of the hallmarks of integration of Planetree is the organization’s designation program. To date, Planetree has 63 designated sites that have intentionally implemented cultures that are emblematic of constant human interactions between healthcare givers, providers, staff, and patients, and provide access to information, healing environments and sustainability, nurturing food and nutrition, arts and positive distractions, and community health and well-being. “And of those 63 organizations that have reached that pinnacle of success, seven are designated with distinction, which is a very high bar to reach,” Platt says. “These designated-with-distinction sites are those that have not only integrated the Planetree model of patient-centered care in a very measurable and meaningful way, but they have committed to do ongoing research so they can share what they’ve learned about implementing this model.” We connected with Platt and gb&d
Joanne Muzzey, director of patient advocacy and Planetree at Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare outside of Chicago—one of the seven designated-with-distinction sites—to discuss participatory design, what Planetree designation can do for a hospital’s internal culture, and how the organization plans to evolve. gb&d: How does participatory design play into what Planetree is doing? Platt: Participatory design is something that Planetree requires of our designated sites, and we have a group called the Planetree Visionary Design Network to demonstrate that they do. The reason being is that you can’t really have patient-centered design if the patients weren’t involved in any part of that design process. Elmhurst really made this a priority for the design of their replacement hospital. Muzzey: In designing our new campus, we—first of all—looked at a lot of patient feedback that we had received from multiple venues over several years. But as we got more into the hands-on design phase, we actually brought in about 150 patients that walked through a lot of the mock-ups that we had designed, and we sat and met with them afterward. It was about a weeklong process to really get their feedback and relate it to their perspective of care.
LEFT Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare, located outside of Chicago, is one of the seven designated-withdistinction sites that Planetree has recognized for exceptional patient-centric design. BELOW Lisa Platt (left) is Planetree’s director of business and product development, and Joanne Muzzey (right) is the director of patient advocacy and Planetree at Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare.
rooms. They were all designed out of Styrofoam, but were close to the square footage. So they could go in and see the space and help us look at the lighting; for example, they didn’t want such strong patient lighting and let us know that they preferred a reading light to a strong light. So we took that into account and made some modifications. We followed this even as we went into furniture selection, using the patient family advisory council again. We actually brought in a critical care bed to a council meeting, and during the meeting, every one of them laid in the bed for about 10-15 minutes. From their feedback, we were able to bring the proposal to the board and make what was obviously a more costly purchase. gb&d: What has reaching this distinction certification meant for the hospital staff and everyone involved? Muzzey: We always had this pyramid of what our goals were. They were always to receive Planetree designation, and our greatest vision was to be designated with distinction. So, by last year, when we actually achieved that, our staff was very recognized for achieving that vision. How many people can actually do that? Achieve a vision
gb&d: What were the mock-up rooms like? And did the feedback lead to design changes? Muzzey: In the mock-up rooms, we had an inpatient room, a critical care room—a total of six different march–april 2015
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you set out to reach? Planetree was so helpful for us, too, because they outlined what that would look like and helped educate our staff and patients about what it would mean. But having that vision to really stand out for a local community hospital really was very exciting, and to this day, very rewarding. I think bringing in and having the tours here really brought it back to our staff, the impact that we’re making as an organization. gb&d: I actually read an interview between Lisa and Robert Sharrow, the vice president and director of healthcare planning at Albert Kahn
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ABOVE At Elmhurst, the participatory design phase was marked by bringing in critical care beds to a council meeting, where members were encouraged to spend 10-15 minutes lying down to provide feedback.
Family of Companies. She asked him if this holistic approach and focus on patient-centered care led to a cultural transformation for the facilities he worked on (both Elmhurst and Albert Einstein Israelita Hospital in Brazil). He answered that it had, and it seems like you’re seeing this, too. Joanne: Absolutely. We started in 2007 and felt we first really wanted to make an impact on our staff. They needed to change some behaviors. When we moved in 2011, we had an even greater tool to use because we had a space that’s been designed to support what you’re trying to
facilitate and do. The new campus has private rooms, which makes 24-hour, patient-directed visiting much easier. We have that in every room to support our care partners. The things that were obstacles in our previous campus were that it was older, smaller, and semi-private, and we now have a space designed to help our staff facilitate what they had already known. gb&d: And Rob was also the designer on this project, correct? Lisa: Yes, and Rob was one of the founding members of the Planetree Visionary Design Network partnergbdmagazine.com
PHOTOS: GEORGE LAMBROS OF LAMBROS PHOTOS
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ship, and there’s only 12 architectural and design firms in the world that are in that group. Rob is very passionate and a wonderful example of an architect that truly believes that having the patients and frontline staff involved in design is key to, using his words, “design excellence.” Herman Miller is actually our only manufacturer that’s in the visionary design network group because of their commitment to patient-centered care and sustainability. gb&d: Does Planetree have hopes in the future to balloon that number, 12, up to have more organizations that are on that same level? And do you hope to incorporate more manufacturers like Herman Miller into the network?
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BELOW Before finalizing the design plans at Elmhurst, 150 patients walked through Styrofoam mock-up rooms to weigh in on factors like lighting and layout.
Lisa: Absolutely. We’re in conversation with almost 2,000 firms who have expressed interest. Some of those are overseas, so we would love to see this growth to be more of a global group than it currently is. The difference between this group and other memberships is that we really do look at these design organizations as true partners. And it’s not necessarily a membership; they go through a robust certification process to be a part of the group, the reason being is that everyone who goes through the process we then trust to walk the walk with what we’re trying to achieve with healing environments that support patient-centered cultures. But absolutely, we would love to see a growth be even more comprehensive and represented by different types of advisors, from contractors to manufactures to engineering firms. gb&d
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S U S TA I N A B L E R E S TAU R A N T
Browntrout A Chicago chef takes cues from the sustainable way of eating he saw while honeymooning in New Zealand
Southern New Zealand’s Wanaka is a “quaint little town that never touches the ground,” according to Sean Sanders, who visited when honeymooning with his wife. “It’s a bit below sea level, so the mountains are covered in snow but the ground isn’t. It’s kind of surreal.” The town’s beloved body of water, Lake Wanaka, is also home to schools of brown trout, a highly sustainable fish that Sanders and his wife caught while out on the pristine water. LEFT Wild mushrooms with popcorn grits, pickled onions, wild flowers, sous-vide egg, and argula, featuring wild mushrooms are from River Valley Ranch and from the wild, popcorn from Nichols Farm, eggs from Little Farm on the Prairie, arugula and wildflowers from Werp Farms, and onions from Genesis Growers
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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF BROWN TROUT
By Amanda Koellner
TRENDSETTERS
“We took it back to our cottage to cook it up, and the owner said, ‘please take whatever you want from the land for the meal,’” he recalls. “That experience inspired and enlightened me. New Zealand was just this mecca of things that all come from the land, which made me realize that here, we’ve gotten very far away from our food system and what food actually is.” Sanders reached such levels of clarity that he, a working chef in Chicago who had spent time at several of city’s fine dining establishments, wrote a business plan for a new sustainable eating concept on the plane ride home. He saw potential restaurant spaces when he and his wife returned stateside, and within three-and-ahalf weeks, they had found their restaurant—to be dubbed Browntrout—and signed their letter of intent. The space on the north side of Chicago opened in May 2009, and today offers food inspired by the sustainability Sanders saw in New Zealand, with as much of it sourced locally as possible (about 60% of the produce comes from the area) and a guarantee that all the animals served were treated well. “We’re the only restaurant in the area that I know of that uses a Freedom Ranger, which is a heritage chicken that isn’t a Cornish Cross, which is a breed that’s a mix of all of the types of chickens together,” he says. “The Freedom Rangers take two weeks longer to grow to fruition, and they’re really special and so delicious.” He notes that because the bird is so delectable, his current favorite dish on the Browntrout menu is the chicken liver pate— served with pickled cranberries, bread and butter pickles, golden raisin mustard, and a potato roll. gb&d
ABOVE Maple vanilla panna cotta with peach preserves, pecan crumble, featuring maple syrup from Spence Farm, dairy from Kilgus Farmstead, pecans from Three Sisters Farm, and peaches from Seedling Farms
Atop the restaurant sits a 1,200-square-foot garden consisting of 10,000 pounds of soil on 11 beds that house lemon grass, sage, parsley, thyme, rosemary, chervil, arugula, romaine, peppers, eucalyptus, and more. A wood-fire grill means everything used to heat the food comes from the ground with no gas required, plus, as Sanders says, “we can control the heat, and we have a smoker so we do our own bacon.” The space housed a Mexican restaurant prior to Sanders’ purchase of the location, so for Browntrout’s takeover, he took sustainability into account as much as possible, with PLA plastic lights
lined with fern leaves, hand-driers in the restrooms to eliminate paper towel usage, all green to-go containers, garbage bags made of cornstarch, and food compost from the restaurant feeding about half of the rooftop garden space. “Eating local would start to kill Chicago’s debt and the national debt, but everyone wants everything cheap,” he says. “It has to happen as a whole. If people are going to buy Monsanto corn, they’re going to buy it. If they’re going to buy organic corn, they’re going to buy it, but they’ll buy less of it because it’s expensive. It’s just human nature.” gb&d march–april 2015
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A R C H I T E C T U R E F I R M , E M E R G E N C Y H O U S I N G I N N O VATO R S
Garrison Architects
By Patrick Sisson
RIGHT These quick-response, modular structures—developed for the New York City Office of Emergency Management for a dense, urban setting—are fast and flexible because they can easily be stacked.
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Disaster relief typically focuses on the immediate issues caused by such traumatic shifts: food shortages, medical attention, and easy-to-install shelter. But addressing immediate needs can sometimes sideline discussion about the challenge of maintaining community in the wake of a tragedy. To address the long-term impact of temporary housing, Garrison Architects helped design a flexible emergency housing system that not only improves the install process, but also seeks to shift the mindset. “This prototype can be used as a way to keep a community together in response to a disaster,” says Garrison’s project manager for the effort, Jeffrey Stewart. “One of the best ways to rebuild a community is to keep them together.” These quick-response, modular structures—developed for the New York City Office of Emergency Management for a dense, urban setting—are fast and flexible because they can easily be stacked, story after story, to patch up the recently torn urban fabric. Unlike a standard shelter or block of trailers, these 2,100-squarefoot units are built for density and roll off the assembly line at Mark Line Industries in Bristol, Indiana with kitchens and bathrooms already installed. After a Sandy-level storm, these shelter-in-place structures just need to be dropped on site and plugged in and can be fitted with solar cells to lessen to load on what may be a strained electrical grid. Stewart envisions cities stockpiling ready-built units near threatened neighborhoods or shorelines, primed to deploy when needed. “These are meant for the middle stage while you’re rebuilding whatever you lost,” he says. “If you just lost your home and were faced with spending six months somewhere, you’d want it to be a little nice, wouldn’t you?”
PHOTO: ANDREW RUGGE/ARCHPHOTO
Garrison Architects’ Urban Post Disaster Housing Prototype seeks to be a neighborhood builder during trying times
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“These are meant for the middle stage while you’re rebuilding whatever you lost. If you just lost your home and were faced with spending six months somewhere, you’d want it to be a little nice, wouldn’t you?” Designed after six years of research (by OEM) looking at more long-term solutions, the shelters also balance ruggedness with livability. Hollow metal doors, corrugated metal and fiber cement panel facades, and custom-built furniture exemplify the focus on adaptable, ADA-compliant layouts created with durable, easy-to-source and completely recyclable raw materials. Balconies provide light and the feeling you’re not just cordoned off in a box, and both the one-and three-bedroom configurations include a fully equipped kitchen and storage space for more livability and independence. Stacked to form a small apartment complex, the units have a streamlined, modern look without the clinical, antiseptic feeling that sometimes comes from emergency housing. After winning a contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, five modules were built and installed on site in New York in a project managed by American Manufactured Structures, a partner in the design effort. Set up in Cadman Plaza East and Red Cross Place, the units will be tested by staff at NYU Polytechnic and Pratt for up to two years, and guests are welcome to spend a five-day stint to try on the temporary shelter. Stewart hopes the team’s long-term focus becomes relevant during this trial period. “We really thought through the entire recovery process,” he says, “and kept that in mind during the design.” gb&d
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PHOTOS: ANDREW RUGGE/ARCHPHOTO
JEFFREY STEWART, GARRISON ARCHITECTS
THIS PAGE Balconies provide light and the feeling you’re not just cordoned off in a box, and both the one-and three-bedroom configurations include a fully equipped kitchen and storage space for more livability and independence.
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H E A LT H C A R E D E S I G N E X P E R T S
Robin Guenther & Gail Vittori The authors of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture take us through their favorite recent hospital designs
PHOTO: GAIL VITTORI PROTRAIT BY AVA BONAR
By Amanda Koellner
To say that Robin Guenther (FAIA, LEED AP) and Gail Vittori (LEED Fellow) wrote the book on the importance of green building in the healthcare sphere would be, well, completely accurate. The wildly impressive duo released their first addition of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture in 2008 with a second edition that followed in 2013. As Rick Fedrizzi pens in his introduction, the authors “show us how critical our green building mission is to the future of human health and secures a lasting legacy that will continue to challenge and focus the green building movement, the healthcare industry, and the world.” The two became acquainted in August of 2001 at a meeting arranged by Dr. Al Sunseri, the then executive director of the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE), to develop sustainable design criteria for their annual Vista Awards. This event led to the publishing of the ASHE Green Healthcare Construction Guidance Statement in 2002, which established many of the core principles and framing concepts of Guenther and Vittori’s collaborative work. It was this event that inspired these women to craft the Green Guide for Health Care (the sector’s first quantifiable sustainable design toolkit); and four years later Wiley and Son publishers approached the duo with hopes of releasing a book on the topic (which of course, they did). gb&d
BIOGRAPHY ROBIN GUENTHER Robin Guenther, FAIA, LEED AP, is the sustainable healthcare leader at Perkins + Will and senior advisor to Healthcare Without Harm. In 2005, she received the Center for Health Design’s Changemaker award for her leadership and innovation in the design of healing environments.
“Rick expresses our intention well; I think we realized from the start of the Green Guide that healthcare leaders would not take on green building unless and until they understood the health connection—and once that was clear, it would be impossible for them to ignore,” Guenther and Vittori say. “We believe that decisions associated with the design, construction, and operation of our built environment is one of the most influential human endeavors relative to human health, and the book provided a great opportunity to make visible what are too often invisible links between buildings and human health.” Here, we asked the pair to pick their three favorite healthcare facility designs from the past few years.
BIOGRAPHY GAIL VITTORI Gail Vittori, LEED Fellow, is co-director for the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems—a non-profit design firm established in 1975, where she has worked since 1979. She is also the chair of the Green Building Certification Institute Board of Directors (2013-2015).
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“Kaiser pushed for the cradle-tograve history on the products [it] bought—on carpeting, paint, upholstery for furniture. And we said, ‘Get the toxic material out of the products or we won’t buy them from you.’” DANIEL GREEN, KAISER PERMANENTE PROJECT DIRECTOR
KAISER PERMANENTE WESTSIDE MEDICAL CENTER HILLSBORO, OREGON Why they picked it: “Kaiser Permanente has been pioneering a methodical, comprehensive health-focused greening approach for their entire building portfolio for more than a decade with careful attention to ensure that their green investments are cost effective. Their first LEED-Gold certified hospital, Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro, opened in August 2013—an outcome of Kaiser Permanente’s announcement earlier that year that all of its new hospitals and major construction projects would meet LEED Gold standards as
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a minimum. The hospital had less than a 1% capital cost premium; operational savings are projected to pay back five times over the life of the building.” It’s sustainable because: “Westside Medical Center exemplifies two of Kaiser Permanente’s green strategic priorities that underscore the commitment to protecting public health and promoting environmental stewardship: its healthy materials palette features formaldehyde-free products, PVC-free flooring and carpet, and minimal use of heavy metals including mercury and lead—still a challenge for the healthcare sector. Recognizing the human
BELOW Throughout the hospital is a 975-piece art collection that showcases local artists. Each piece was hand-selected or commissioned to enhance health and wellness.
health consequences of climate change, it integrates a 10kW solar photovoltaic array on the parking structure’s roof that contributes to 70% of the hospital’s power derived from clean energy sources, and a 26% modeled energy reduction compared to code.” What surprised them about this project: “Before Kaiser Permanente’s public announcement to prohibit furnishings manufactured with chemical flame retardants, they asked the hospital’s contractor to remove products manufactured with PBDE, a halogenated flame retardant banned by the Oregon Legislature effective January 1, 2011, after construction had begun. Although the legislation only applied to products installed after its effective date, Kaiser Permanente’s decision to remove all the PBDE-containing products, resulting in significant expense, highlighted its bold commitment to align its building material procurement practices as integral to its health promoting initiatives. This strategy is not recognized as a credit in LEED BD+C. We love this quote from Kaiser Permanente’s project director Daniel Green: “Why would we want to build a brand-new building and leave that stuff in? I’m proud of the local doctors and the construction management people, as well as in the headquarters in Oakland for saying we’ll stand tall and pay for this.” Acknowledging that Kaiser Permanente has had its own materials-related standards in place for some time, Green further elaborated: “…Kaiser pushed for the cradle-to-grave history on the products [it] bought—on carpeting, paint, upholstery for furniture. And we said, ‘Get the toxic material out of the products or we won’t buy them from you.’”” gbdmagazine.com
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GROUP HEALTH PUYALLUP MEDICAL CENTER
PHOTO: ED SOZINHO
PUYALLUP, WASHINGTON
Why they picked it: “This is the first building to certify under LEED for Healthcare—a major achievement! LEED for Healthcare is really aimed at 24/7 institutional occupancies, so the fact that the very first project to certify is a community health center demonstrates the enthusiasm and will of an owner and design team to push the boundaries of current practice. The team, including The Benaroya Company (developer), CollinsWoerman (architect), GLY (Contractor), and the broader consultant team agreed to performance targets for the whole project—a clear demonstration of Integrated Project Delivery (one of the defining prerequisites of LEED for Healthcare).” It’s sustainable because: “There are three credits unique to gb&d
ABOVE This facility features a green roof, a strong connection to the natural world, patient gardens, and more.
LEED for Healthcare that this very first certified project achieved, validating their relevance to healthcare users. The first, connection to the natural world, is clearly demonstrated through the inclusion of both patient gardens and dedicated, covered outdoor roof space for staff. Given the programmatic and budget constraints of a community health center, achieving this level of connection is noteworthy. The project also achieved the two PBT source reduction credits, focusing on a less-toxic material palette through a broad range of strategies—from mercury reduction achieved through long-lamp life and lead-free solder to mechanical joints in copper piping. Finally, they used the healthy furniture credit, selecting furnishings with low-volatile organic compound (VOC) content, low urea-formaldehyde content and low levels of
perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) treatments. What surprised them about this project: “The focus on integrated design delivered particular design strategies that have multiple benefits—for example, the green roof contributed to four credits—reduced stormwater runoff (SS Credit 6), reduced heat island impacts (SS 7.2), provided connection to the natural world and respite (SS Credit 9), and improved energy performance (EA Credit 1). Only integrated teams can really capture those benefits across categories. The building also expresses its sustainable strategies creatively and elegantly; its surprising to see a first-time LEED owner embrace the improved health of the community as a core value in the decision to embrace sustainable building.” march–april 2015
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ST. MARY’S HOSPITAL EXPANSION VANCOUVER COASTAL HEALTH SECHELT, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Why they picked it: “When we were researching our book, this project captured our attention because of the audacious sustainable goals expressed through a very modestly scaled and simple community hospital project. The inspiration for the design, eloquently expressed by architect Tye Farrow, was the cedar bent-box, unique to the coastal First Nations. In this concept, the bent-box holds our most precious possession—our health.”
It’s sustainable because: “The design supports this notion of improved health through a range of features, from enhanced daylighting, amazing views, and a truly innovative approach to carbon reduction. The area’s First Nations’ peoples believe a connection to nature is necessary for healing and overall health in all living things—hence the new patient rooms required oversized windows for optimum daylight and views. To achieve the required energy performance, sensor-activated motorized external blinds on south, east, and west elevations reduce
THIS PAGE This 50,000-squarefoot addition is North America’s first carbon-neutral hospital.
“We believe that decisions associated with the design, construction, and operation of our built environment is one of the most influential human endeavors relative to human health, and the book provided a great opportunity to make visible what are too often invisible links between buildings and human health.” ROBIN GUENTHER AND GAIL VITTORI
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unwanted solar gain. The envelope features above code-minimum envelope performance: R-60 roof construction, R-40 exterior walls, and high performance glazing.” What surprised them about this project: “Given the modest project brief of a 50,000-square-foot addition, the goal of delivering North America’s first carbon-neutral hospital was really surprising. As the project took shape, the team committed to achieving a “net zero carbon footprint” project—i.e., no campus energy increase compared with the current facility following completion of the project. The design team, led by Farrow Partnership in association with Perkins+Will, achieved it through the installation of a new, high efficiency ground source heat pump central plant. A second comparison, based on CO2 emissions, suggests that the expanded campus carbon footprint is actually less than the prior campus carbon emissions, and approximately 50% less than had the addition been completed by expanding the existing systems. We generally don’t believe that such an outcome is possible in a modest project like this.” gb&d gbdmagazine.com
PHOTO: COURTESY OF PEKINS + WILL
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GREEN BUILDING TRENDSETTERS & DESIGN
Up Front Typology Trendsetters Inner Workings Features Spaces Next Punch List
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50 Madison Park House
A custom-built home holds the hillside up
53 C3 Prefab
A high-performance hybrid packs a big punch
56 The Living Home
Greenbuild’s modern prefab demonstration house gets a permanent home in NOLA
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INNER WORKINGS
Madison Park House On a steep Seattle site once plagued by landslides, a custom house by First Lamp helps hold the hillside up
Situated on a steeply sloped lot in the Madison Park neighborhood of Seattle, a 3,200-square-foot custom-spec house by First Lamp was designed to grow out of the hillside with a main living space that floats out among the trees. The house will be an Energy Star-certified residence and is targeted to be 4-star Built Green. Here’s a look at how the designers did it. By Rebecca Falzano
A SECURE FOUNDATION The site’s steep topography, lack
of strong vegetation, layout of surrounding properties, and history of landslides all contributed to some serious vulnerabilities. “It was an exercise in logistics,” says project manager and lead designer Kevin Witt of First Lamp. As a result, a lot of the design has to do with the foundation. The house sits on 54 four-foot-diameter pin piles driven into the earth at least 20 feet deep, while five helical anchors (“picture gigantic wood screws,” says Witt) at a 20-degree angle anchor the house into the hillside and keep it from sliding down—all combined with a concrete foundation that retains the uphill side of the slope as well. DESIGNED TO LAST Witt and his team at First Lamp take
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PHOTO: TIM BIES
a building science approach to how buildings are put together, and spent a lot of time on this project thinking about water vapor and how walls work across inside/outside thermal gradients. As a result, the entire project has an open-joint rainscreen and a liquid-applied air barrier underneath. “The liquid barrier makes it easier to air seal and the rainscreen makes the siding last longer—plus there’s a thermal advantage,” Witt says. “The reality is a rainscreen system helps walls breathe better so we just sleep better at night knowing everything is going to last longer.”
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INNER WORKINGS
PROJECT
TEAM
SUPPLIERS
LOCATION Seattle, WA Size 2,819 ft2 Completion 2014 Certification 4-Star Built-Green (Pending) Program Single-Family Residence Cost $900,000
OWNER Square Two Developer Square Two Architect First Lamp Civil Engineer Decker Consulting Engineers Structural Engineer Année Structural Engineering General Contractor Folded Line
Glass Systems Jeld-Wen Rainscreen Pacific Exteriors Air/Weather Barrier Apex Specialty Coatings Roofing America 1st Lighting Lightology.com HVAC Northwood Heating
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BELOW The steep slope upon which this house sits led to “an exercise in logistics,” as avoiding landslides was a key objective in the design.
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ENDURING MATERIALS
LIVING ROOF
The siding is almost 100% cedar,
The house is topped with approx-
charred to more closely reflect the deep ambient color under a grove of mature trees. As one of the more resistant woods out there, cedar stands up to the elements and the deep charred finish gives it even more weather- and decay- resistance and durability. The interior features durable bamboo floors, a wood with a Janka rating as high as some of the Brazilian hardwoods. “We used mainstream materials,” Witt says, “but we turned the volume up on them.”
imately 2,000 square feet of living roof, which acts not only as a filter and a sponge, but an aesthetic amenity for the homeowners as well. “City engineers prefer to have all stormwater seep into the soil so they don’t have to treat it at a plant,” Witt says. “Our geotechnical engineer wanted to get as much of the stormwater off site as possible, though, so the green roof was the perfect solution.” Not only is maintenance relatively low (re-seeding is easy, according to Witt), a green roof prolongs the life of waterproofing membranes by protecting them from UV rays that can break them down. gb&d
PHOTO: TIM BIES
INNER WORKINGS
THIS PAGE The interior features durable bamboo floors, a wood with a Janka rating as high as some of the Brazilian hardwoods.
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INNER WORKINGS
C3 Prefab One of Chicago’s first green prefab houses, the C3 by Square Root Architecture and Design, is a high-performance hybrid that packs a stunning design punch
The house was constructed with a structural insulat-
ed panel (SIP) system. Generically referred to as a flat-pack, this system used to construct the exterior walls and roof forms a highly insulated thermally broken building envelope with minimal opportunities for air and water infiltration. Although this form of prefab requires more onsite construction, it’s a hybrid approach that takes advantage of the better qualities of both prefab and onsite construction, and minimizes transportation and erection costs of the prefab units. “It allowed for lower shipping costs, lower craning costs, and the ability to work within the city’s requirements for on-site inspections,” Sommers says. HIGH-EFFICIENCY MECHANICALS “While a lot of buildings are designed according
to ‘rule of thumb,’” says Sommers, “we design our systems specific to the energy calculations of the particular building.” Rather than an open-flame furnace, a forced-air system uses hot water coils, allowing the heating/cooling systems to be more efficient because they hold temperature better. Solar thermal panels on the roof produce the hot water that passes through the high-efficiency boiler, supplying both domestic hot water and water for heating. Ductwork throughout was treated with Aeroseal, an expanding aerosol product that seals small leaks, reducing air loss. All mechanicals are organized to one side of the building to maximize construction efficiency and allow the remainder of the floor plan to remain open and flexible.
IMAGES: COURTESY OF SQUARE ROOT ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN
Armed with some lessons learned after designing Chicago’s first green prefab house, the C3, Jeffrey Sommers of Square Root Architecture and Design created version 2.0—a hybrid approach to prefab that draws on the best parts of both modular and on-site construction. “This house was a case study on how and why to build better,” says Sommers. The project received EnergyStar and Indoor AirPlus certifications and was third-party tested for a HERS (Home Energy Rating System) score of 43. By Rebecca Falzano
SIP SYSTEM
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PROJECT
TEAM
SUPPLIERS
LOCATION Chicago, IL Size 3,600ft ² Completion 2013 Certification Energy Star + Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Program Single-family residence Cost $165/ft ²
OWNER Private Architect Square Root Architecture + Design Structural Engineer Porter SIPs Mechanical Engineer Priority Energy Landscape Architect Groundwork Design General Contractor Villa Builders Solar Contractor Solar Service
Glass Systems THV Windows Air/Weather Barrier Enviro Dri Roofing TPO HVAC Lifebreath Cement Board Siding Viroc Corrugated Metal Siding Galvalume Wood Siding Reclaimed Barnwood Siding Kitchen Cabinetry Cabico
THIS PAGE Corrugated corten metal siding, painted cement board panels, and reclaimed barn wood siding comprise parts of the exterior.
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proofed basements (where an asphalt-based coating is applied to the outside to keep out soil moisture), Square Root chose to waterproof instead, a practice that stops both moisture and liquid water. “It’s a belt and suspenders approach to keeping water out,” Sommers says. A waterproofed membrane runs along the entire concrete foundation and insulates outside the basement wall. “When you’re going from below grade to above grade, microclimates have significant impacts on where dewpoints are. It made more sense to push the R10 insulation outside to keep the wall warmed on the inside and the condensation away,” Sommers says. BARRIER SYSTEM Exterior materials include corrugated corten
metal siding, painted cement board panels, and reclaimed barn wood siding. In addition to a rainscreen system that allows the siding to breathe, the house features a liquid-based building wrap called Enviro-Dri, a more effective alternative to traditional housewraps. The weather-resistant barrier system is a permanently adhered membrane that is applied directly to the sheathing system. “Since it’s a liquid-applied membrane, there are no seams so you end up with a contiguous membrane around the building,” says Sommers. gb&d
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IMAGES: COURTESY OF SQUARE ROOT ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN
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INNER WORKINGS
The LivingHome Greenbuild’s modern prefab demonstration house is put to its ultimate test: as a high-performance home in New Orleans
PROJECT LOCATION New Orleans, LA Size 1,550ft ² Completion 2014 Certification Anticipating LEED Platinum Program Single-family residence
TEAM OWNER Make it Right Foundation Developer LivingHomes Designer LivingHomes Structural Engineer Jerry L. Helms Mechanical Engineer Unico Electrical Engineer Palm Harbor Homes, Inc General Contractor TKO Builders Modular Factory Palm Harbor Homes, Inc. LEED Provider Maureen Mahle, Steven Winter Associates, Inc. HERS Rater Chip Henderson, Contects Interiors Nomita JoshiGupta, SPRUCE Sustainability Consultants Delos Living LLC Inspirit-LLC
Making its debut at the 2014 Greenbuild conference in New Orleans was LivingHomes’ 1,500-square-foot modular net-zero demonstration house, which was designed in collaboration with Make It Right, an organization founded by Brad Pitt in the wake of Hurricane Katrina
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to build homes for people in need. The house showcased the latest in high-performance and healthy living practices, and following Greenbuild, was moved to a site in the Lower 9th Ward, an area hit hardest by Katrina. By Rebecca Falzano
ABOVE This LivingHome is built to LEED v4 Platinum and Energy Star v3 standards.
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INNER WORKINGS
LEFT In the kitchen, a filtration system inserts Vitamin C into the water to reduce contact with chlorine, while seamless countertops reduce the presence of bacteria in crevices.
SUPPLIERS
HIGH PERFORMANCE, HIGH DESIGN
PITCHED ROOF
“Our prefab homes are unique in that they are not only
“We’ve built a lot of houses with flat roofs, but we’ve found that pitched roofs are higher performing and lower maintenance, which was a must in this case,” says Darden. The team chose a galvanized aluminum roof with 16-inch Vertical Seam 24 Gauge Panels by Metal Sales. The snap-together panel system features a factory-applied side lap sealant and concealed clip designed to accommodate thermal movement and up to 4-inch blanket insulation. Designed to withstand the severest weather, the roof is not only durable but fire-resistant as well.
sustainably designed,” says LivingHomes CEO Steve Glenn, but “architecturally distinct as well.” With its sleek, modern lines, the LivingHome cuts no corners when it comes to design. A comprehensive environmental program means the house is built to LEED v4 Platinum and Energy Star v3 standards, while incorporating Cradle To Cradle–certified products and criteria from the International WELL Building Institute’s certification program. “The goal was to build the best house possible, in terms of health and safety for the families, harmonizing people and the environment,” says Make It Right’s executive director Tom Darden. CUSTOMIZED FOR CLIMATE The house was adapted from one of LivingHomes’
original modular designs to specifically accommodate the challenging climate of New Orleans. Virtually all elements were designed to keep moisture out, and the house is perched on stilts two feet above what code calls for. Windows feature removable hurricane-resistant screens (an affordable alternative to hurricane-ready windows), cement lap siding that sheds water, and bathtubs and sinks designed with extra-deep basins to provide water storage should a storm threaten to cut off the water supply.
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HEALTHY HOME The LivingHome was designed to promote the health and
wellbeing of its dwellers, according to Glenn. Lighting throughout was engineered to simulate the natural environment and support circadian rhythms for healthy sleep cycles. To maximize indoor air quality, all paints and stains are low-VOC, while antimicrobial, anti-mildew drywall captures VOCs brought into the home. (In addition, bathroom fans are equipped with motion sensors to remove moisture promptly to ward off mold and mildew.) Furniture is free of formaldehyde, polyurethane, and flame-retardants. In the kitchen and baths, a filtration system inserts Vitamin C into the water to reduce contact with chlorine, while seamless countertops reduce the presence of bacteria in crevices. gb&d
Glass Systems Andersen Air/Weather Barrier DuPont Tyvek Roofing Metal Sales Manufacturing Corporation Exterior Siding Norandex Building Materials Distribution Lighting Cooper Lighting HVAC Unico Insulation Saint-Gobain/ CertainTeed Paint Benjamin Moore Interior Venting Panasonic Appliances Frigidaire/ Electrolux Exterior Decking & Railings Accoya Porcelain Tile Mosa Kitchen Cabinets Advanta Wood Floors Shaw Sheathing Huber Advantech Counters Cosentino Wood Framing Roseburg Tankless Waterheater Rinnai Photovoltaic SolarCity Interior Doors Jeldwen Pressure Treated Framing Yella Wood Window Coverings MechoSystems Wall Tiles Mossa Tile Plumbing Fixtures Kohler
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Typology Trendsetters Inner Workings Features Spaces Next Punch List
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HUMANS & HEALTH
60 Building WELL
The WELL Building Standard is finding a way to take today’s emphasis on lifestyle-oriented and preventative approaches to health and apply that way of thinking to the built environment
70 Unlocking UL
A look inside how UL Environment’s GREENGUARD and ECOLOGO certifications are bring scientific rigor and transparency to the green building market
76 UL Environment in the Field
Tremco’s low-emitting sealants and waterproofing materials achieve UL’s certifications and sync adjacent but often unconnected building elements
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FEATURES HUMANS & HEALTH
The WELL Building Standard has arrived—an inside look at the next generation of sustainable design By Brian Barth
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FEATURES
RIGHT CBRE, pictured here, is the world’s first completed office space to achieve WELL certification under the pilot program.
PHOTO: ROBERT DOWNS, COURTESY OF GENSLER
S
even years ago, a lightbulb went off in Paul Scialla ’s head: now that we’ve learned to design buildings that are healthy for the environment, isn’t it time to start designing them to be healthier for people? At the time, Scialla had just been made a partner at Goldman Sachs; he had devoted nearly half of his career to Wall Street. But never one to question an intuitive thought—or shy from a challenge—he started to investigate. “I took a look at how the word ‘sustainability’ was being used and felt there was a bit of a gap in thought,” he says. “So I started thinking about how far we can push what that word really means and advance the notion of human, or biological, sustainability.” Scialla talked to architects and designers of all stripes. He spoke with health experts, real estate professionals, and scientists in fields ranging from ergonomics and acoustics to sociology and psychology. He learned that humans spend an average of 90% of their time indoors and that indoor air quality in approximately 70% of buildings is worse than outdoor air quality. Volumes have been written on the correlation between the design of the built environment and human health, especially in the workplace. Some connections are straightforward—most people have experienced the off-gassing of new carpet or wall finishes, for example, and understand that the release of harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can lead to headaches, nausea, and fatigue. Others correlations are more subtle. The
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BELOW Paul Scialla, CEO, founded Delos, a research platform, technology incubator, and real estate development company to help make the WELL Builiding Standard a reality.
wavelength of light used to illuminate our workspaces during the day can lead to sleeplessness at night; the design of stairwells can entice us to use them or predispose us to head for the elevator; even the color and texture of wall coverings can influence whether we feel perky and productive throughout the day or bored and disengaged. “I found that this concept appeals to anyone,” Scialla says. “Everyone cares about their own health, their well-being and that of their family; and when they understand that our built environment can have a meaningful impact on how we feel, everyone gets excited.” Scialla also found, despite the overwhelming evidence link-
ing design and public health, that there was not yet a comprehensive guide, much less a standard, for integrating this knowledge into the real estate industry. So he set out to build one. “I recognized early on that if this can be accomplished it certainly needs to be shared, and it needs to be scaled globally,” he says. The economic prospects were intriguing. “Real estate is the largest asset class in the world with $150 trillion value, globally,” Scialla says. “What if we looked to intelligently infuse that with the fastest growing, and arguably most important industry—health and wellness—in itself a $2 trillion annual spend?” march–april 2015
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BELOW Currently under construction, 85 Bluxome Street is designed to be a Class A, LEED Gold certified, ground-up office development located in the South of Market area of San Francisco.
A LOOK AT THE DELOS ADVISORY BOARD Dr. Deepak Chopra: Founder of the Chopra Foundation Dick Gephardt: Former US Congressman and House of Representatives Majority Leader Leonardo DiCaprio: Sustainability advocate, actor
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secretary and U.S. senator Mel Martinez and actor Leonardo Di Caprio—figures that make the WELL Building initiative a truly interdisciplinary effort and garner support and from a broad base of stakeholders. “We really took our time to get this concept right—academically, medically, politically,” Scialla says. The “roster of minds” he assembled to flesh out the concept and begin building prototypes was not the sort of utopist, freshfrom-graduate-school bunch you might expect. The 40-plus staff members are rich in both Ph.D.’s and real world experience, their resumes populated with names such as the Columbia University Medical Center,
Rick Fedrizzi: President & CEO of the US Green Building Council Dolly Lenz: Real estate broker Mel Martinez: Former Chairman of the Republican National Committee, HUD Secretary, and US Senator Jason McLennan: CEO, International Living Future Institute Dr. Michael Roizen: Chief Wellness Officer at the Cleveland Clinic Sue Firestone: Founder and Chairman of Smith/Firestone Associates
the University of California Berkeley’s Center for the Built Environment, and the United Nations Millennium Villages Project. “We’re linking health effects to solutions through elements,” says Nathan Stodola, director of the WELL Building Standard and a mechanical engineer by trade. “For example, a number of cohort-based studies show that people who walk 3,000 steps more per day will have certain benefits to their cardiovascular system over the long term, while other studies show that when you design spaces like ‘X’, you’ll get people to walk more.” From there, Stodola’s team worked backward to come up with a coordinated, implementable set of practices to support each health outcome that could be correlated to building design. Working in this fashion, 102 performance metrics were established in seven conceptual arenas: air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind. “The design interventions that we’ve specified in the Well Building Standard are linked to a measurable outcome, which has been shown to have these health benefits,” Stodola says. Our modern healthcare system focuses on addressing health after sickness has already struck a person. But with the increased prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer—not to mention the immense costs of treating these ailments—the healthcare community has put more and more emphasis on lifestyle-oriented and preventative approaches to health. The WELL Building gbdmagazine.com
PHOTO: COURTESY OF BLUXOME PARTNERS, LLC
THE SCIENCE OF A HEALTHY BUILDING After a couple years of personally vetting the concept, Scialla formed Delos: a research platform, technology incubator, and wellness real estate development company meant to put his ideas into practice. Named after the Greek island that was the mythological home of the gods and a place of eternal good health, the company emerged as a hive-like laboratory, convening some of the top minds in health, design, and real estate. It’s not just the health and design communities that are involved, either. The Delos advisory board is stacked with political and cultural heavyweights, including former HUD
Nicholas LaRusso: Medical Director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation
PHOTO: MATT WAUGH
FEATURES
Standard provides a way to apply this line of thinking to the built environment and has emerged through a rigorous three-part peer review process. A committee of scientists, each with very specific areas of expertise, was convened to establish minimum benchmarks for the quality of water, light, air, and other components of the built environment that directly affect human health. A team of design and construction industry professionals analyzed the implementability of the standards, giving feedback on the best way to incorporate them into current building practices. Finally, a medical review board gave suggestions on how the standards could be implemented for the greatest leverage on public health outcomes. “The WELL Building Standard takes us away from the sick-building syndrome,” says Dr. Michael Roizen , chief wellness officer at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Roizen, who headed up the medical review team along with Dr. Nicholas LaRusso of the Mayo Clinic and a number of other nagb&d
ABOVE Shangri-La Construction Headquarters improvements include new non-load bearing partitions, new floor and wall finishes, new power, data, and A/V. The project is pursuing LEED Certification and WELL Pilot Certification.
“The WELL Building Standard takes us away from the sickbuilding syndrome. It should help people see how their choices affect their health costs.” Dr. Michael Roizen, the Cleveland Clinic
tionally respected physicians, points out that increasing the health of buildings in which we spend our time ripples out with significant benefits to society at large by reducing the burden of healthcare costs. “It should help people see how their choices affect their health costs,” says Roizen, emphasizing that policymakers should take note of the potential to reduce taxpayer costs associated with healthcare. DELOS, IWBI, & BILL CLINTON Delos invested nearly seven years of research and development in creating the development and framework of the WELL Building Standard, which was unveiled in October of 2014 (version one). The launch marked the end of a two-year pilot program in which a number of projects were designed and built using the standard, which provided real world feedback on what it takes to implement the criteria across a number of building typologies. There are now condominiums in Manhattan, hotel rooms in Las Vegas, restaurants in California,
Colorado, and Illinois, and more that show how healthy buildings look, feel, and function in these contexts. CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate development company, built a new global corporate headquarters in Los Angeles as part of the pilot program in 2013, becoming the first office space to do so. Other pilot projects tested the concept in the retail, multi-family, institutional, and mixed-use sectors, including sites in Melbourne, Shanghai, Mexico City, and New Delhi. As of early 2015, nearly 8 million square feet of what has been termed “wellness-infused” real estate has been built or is registered for certification— about 30% of it overseas. As things progressed, Stodola says it became clear that the WELL building concept was not something to be housed within a single development company. “Real estate development is so capital intensive, we felt that roll-out would be too slow; we needed a way to share all the research we’d done with many more projects influencing many more people.” Thus in 2013, Demarch–april 2015
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THE INTERNATIONAL WELL BUILDING INSTITUTE HUMANS & HEALTH GETTING WELL
los launched the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) to administer the WELL Building Standard, which is now available to the general public. IWBI is partnered with the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) , the organization responsible for LEED certification according to the standards of the USGBC, who is now providing third-party certification for the WELL Building Standard. Notably, IWBI is not a for-profit or a not-for-profit company. It is structured as a B-corp, a relatively new corporate structure in the US that is intended to balance profitability with public benefits. IWBI will direct at least 51% of net profits toward charitable causes related to its mission of health in the built environment. Scialla is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an organization formed by the Clinton family to address the biggest challenges of our times. “[This] will literally change the way we
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7
2013
51%
Number of Years that Delos invested in research and development in creating version one of the WELL Building Standard
Year that Delos launched the International Well Building Institute (IWBI), partnered with the GBCI, to administer the WELL Building Standard
Amount of profits the IWBI directs toward charitable causes related to health in the built environment
90%
70%
3,000
Amount of time that humans spend indoors on average
Amount of buildings with indoor air quality worse than that of the outdoors
Number of additional steps per day that will have long-term benefits to the cardiovascular system
8
1-2%
$100
million ft ² of projects that are currently registered for WELL certification
Added costs of implementation of the WELL certification
Typical cost-per-employee of WELL Certification in a corporate office
live and work in a very positive way,” said former President Clinton at the CGI annual meeting in 2012 in acknowledging the commitment to improved public health embodied in the WELL Building Standard. IWBI is collaborating with the USGBC to build the William Jefferson Clinton Children’s Center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, an orphanage and model for resilient construction techniques that will be built according to LEED and WELL building standards. As Scialla says, “Health and well-being in the built environment should not be considered a privilege, it should be considered a right.”
buildings are performing for the whole reason they exist, which is for the people who inhabit them.” Moore, who comes from the green building industry (she is a former senior vice president of the USGBC; her last job was as Obama’s Chief Sustainability Officer), emphasizes that project managers seeking LEED and WELL certification will experience a highly streamlined process in registering and certifying their projects. There are about a dozen metrics where WELL overlaps with LEED and the Living Building Challenge, but Moore says “we are committed to a principle of no duplication; we want to add value, not administrative work.” À la LEED, a project can be certified as WELL Silver, WELL Gold, or WELL Platinum, and the web portal for uploading scorecard information for one automatically populates the relevant fields for the other. “We’ve been very mindful of that interconnection, not only
from the perspective of sustainability and health being linked conceptually, but also in how the technical guts of the program have been developed and how the market would put it to use,” Moore says. For this reason, developers, designers, and financiers who are familiar with and see the value of LEED certification will find that WELL certification fits seamlessly into the same process from the perspective of implementation. LEED has become a relatively straightforward business case based on the dual benefits of reducing energy consumption for both the environment and the bottom line. Although a sufficiently large dataset to verify the average implementation costs and return on investment associated with WELL does not yet exist, early indications are very promising. “Anecdotal evidence is that added costs for implementation are in the 1-to-2% range from what we’ve seen,” Moore says, basing the number
INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS In regards to the LEED-WELL connection, “[the WELL Building Standard] starts with sustainability as a platform,” says Michelle Moore , senior vice president at IWBI, “but takes it a step further and expands on those metrics to make sure
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PHOTO: DENMARSH PHOTOGRAPHY, INC.
FEATURES HUMANS & HEALTH
The Phipps Center for Sustainable Landscapes reached WELL Platinum Pilot Certification in October 2014.
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PHOTO: ROBERT DOWNS, COURTESY OF GENSLER
FEATURES HUMANS & HEALTH
AT CBRE
83% of employees say they feel more productive in the new building
90% would recommend the new space to colleagues
92% feel the new space has had a positive effect on their health and wellbeing
on the handful of projects that have been built and certified so far and the budget projections for many others that are progressing through the pipeline. Where LEED pays for itself in lower utility bills, the payback for the modest investment in the WELL Building Standard comes in the form of human capital, which has significant fiscal implications in itself. “In any building, 5-to-6% of it is ongoing energy costs,” says Scialla, “but 86% of the costs of any building are the people inside of it. So if we can focus on reducing that cost input and enhancing output, we have a staggering economic proposition.” Translating those figures to square footage costs, Moore says annual energy costs in an office building might be in the $3-persquare-foot range, while corporations could spend around $300 per square foot on their employees. It is the cost-benefit ratio for the latter that puts the ROI for WELL on firm ground. She estimates that WELL certification costs for a typical corporate office space are going to be in the $100-per-employee range: “That’s two lunches or two weeks of coffee.” “Occupant satisfaction in the building is as big a part of the WELL Building Standard as overall health,” says Stodola, citing poor sound proofing and lack of thermal comfort as the gb&d
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ABOVE Designed by HOK, the William Jefferson Clinton Children’s Center in Port-auPrince, Haiti is aiming for WELL Certification and LEED Platinum certification.
“86% of the costs of any building are the people inside of it. So if we can focus on reducing that cost input and enhancing output, we have a staggering economic proposition.” Paul Scialla
ings that are likely to pursue LEED certification. Although they are still doing the homework to arrive at more concrete numbers for up-front and operational costs versus health benefits and ROI, everyone at IWBI concurs that WELL standards are essentially a value-added amenity to LEED standards. In this early stage of development, Moore says their first adoptees are largely “builders that know how to drive building performance and how to link that to a business case at the end of the day.” IWBI is in the process of developing precise standards for retail, sports arenas, institutional environments, multi-family housing, and healthcare facilities, but in the meantime, the first WELL AP classes are forming to educate design professionals on using the standards in practice. “There is a long
waiting list for enrollment,” says Moore, but announcements will be made throughout 2015 for additional dates to accommodate the demand.
HOW DOES IT FEEL? Now that several WELL-certified buildings are occupied, the long-term process of testing their performance is underway. CBRE recently published the results of an employee survey given after one year in their LEED Gold, WELL-certified office space in Los Angeles. 83% of employees say they feel more productive in the new building; 90% would recommend the new space to colleagues; 92% feel the new space has a positive effect on their health and wellbeing. Haworth, an architectural interiors manufacturer using the WELL Building Standard, is carrying out similar studies gbdmagazine.com
RENDERING: DESIGNED BY HOK
two biggest areas of complaints in the office space. WELL standards address these points in detail, along with many others that are linked to workplace health and happiness that employees may not be consciously aware of. The logic is that if air quality, lighting, ergonomics, and overall health and human comfort are improved, average employee sick days will go down and productivity will go up. “If the health and wellness benefits of that environment help eliminate one sick day per year for an employee or helps them to be more productive and engaged because they have a better sense of well-being and don’t feel crabby by 2 o’clock in the afternoon, then you have your payback,” Moore says. Version one of the WELL Building Standard is optimized for office spaces, especially Class A owner occupied build-
FEATURES HUMANS & HEALTH
at their Mexico City, Shanghai, and Los Angeles showrooms. “We’ve built process maps to calculate the time it takes to conduct typical work tasks and have developed statistical methods to see if any of the changes to the physical space had an actual impact to speed and time of business processes,” says Dr. Mike O’Neil, senior researcher at Haworth. Haworth is also collaborating with Delos to develop monitoring devices that will collect real-time data on performance measures like air quality and how people are actually using the space and “beam that back to the headquarters to make
sure we’re in compliance over time,” O’Neil says. Performance is everything. Since the WELL Building Standard is as much about operations as they are about physical design, recertification will be required every three years. In terms of the physical components, “WELL will look similar to a LEED Gold or LEED Platinum building because of the biophilic design where you’re bringing nature into the space, but for me the biggest difference I see is in behavior and workplace culture,” says Steven Kooy, global sustainability manager at Haworth. WELL may be a new way of
building, but there is one person who has extensive experience with what it’s like to inhabit a WELL-certified space. “When we first started investigating this, I put a lot of these features into my own home,” says Scialla, the Delos founder. “My sleeping patterns are incredibly different than they used to be with the circadian lighting elements. I used to get a nasty cold three or four times a year and that has become quite infrequent. My energy levels have been through the roof.” At last, a way of building to heal the ills of our sedentary society. “The time has come,” says Scialla. gb&d
PHOTO: COURTESY OF HAWORTH
BELOW Haworth’s headquarters include WELL features, such as ergonomic seating, height adjustable tables, and more. While the HQ is not WELL Certified, the company’s Shanghai showroom is the first showroom registered for WELL Certification.
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FEATURES
A look inside how UL Environment’s GREENGUARD and ECOLOGO certifications are bringing scientific rigor and transparency to the green building market
By Jeff Link
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include environmental product assessments and certifications.
mance of materials, UL’s focus on safety testing has expanded to
greater transparency regarding the environmental perfor-
driven interest in green building products and the desire for
Green Building Council (USGBC) and its LEED rating system have
working environments. In the past 20 years, however, as the US
the company’s focus has long been to promote safe living and
shock hazards at the time of the public adoption of electricity,
product safety. Beginning with laboratory testing of fire and
Founded in 1894 by William Henry Merrill, UL (formerly known
as Underwriters Laboratories) has a long history of promoting
FEATURES HUMANS & HEALTH
LEFT VOC emissions testing is all done in stainless steel chambers of varying sizes, and UL Environment tests a wide range of products in the chambers, ranging from paint to wallboard to insulation to furniture to electronics.
“More than a decade ago, UL realized to best promote its commitment to safety, it needed to incorporate the environment and health within that definition. Safety is meant to encompass not only physical safety—you won’t find electrical devices shocking you anymore—it’s meant to capture something that has actual merit today,” says Paul Firth, UL Environment product manager, sustainability services. “When you put an environmental standard out there and a manufacturer sees recognition from the industry—look UL published statistics on that—they say, ‘What do I need to do to achieve that standard?’” UL is now the exclusive provider of GREENGUARD Certification for products that meet stringent chemical emissions requirements, and ECOLOGO Certification for products that meet multi-attribute, life cycle-based sustainability standards. UL also offers single-attribute environmental claims validations, including waste to landfill validation, organizational sustainability certifications, and transparency documents such as Environmental Product Declarations. UL’s GREENGUARD and ECOLOGO are recognized and referenced in more than 900 sustainable product specifications and purchasing guidelines that cover tens of thousands of products ranging from building materials, office furniture, and paints to baby cribs, electronics, and mobile phones. Led by Carlos Correia, president of UL supply chain and sustainability, and a team of research scientists, UL Environment, a division of the parent company that was launched in 2009, is enabling manufacturers to capture value for their sustainability efforts, helping bring lower polluting products to market, and lending transparency to a crowded and often misleading green marketplace. “Demand for these certifications and transparency documents has led to manufacturing changes that have resulted in a reduction of cancer causing chemicals on product surfaces and have given companies a platform to communicate what they’ve done,” Firth says. march–april 2015
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FEATURES
GREENGUARD
The GREENGUARD Certification requires that products meet some of the world’s most rigorous and comprehensive limits for low emissions of volatile organic compounds into indoor environments. GREENGUARD Certification emissions limits were first used as purchasing specifications for the US Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Washington for furniture and commercial building products. Since 2002, they have been the basis for the LEED credit for low-emitting furniture. Product testing is conducted by scientists in steel chambers at UL Environment facilities in Marietta, Georgia; Cologne, Germany; Kyoto, Japan; and Nansha, China. The test results are
analyzed and a report is generated based on that analysis, which shows the various chemical emissions from that specific tested product. If the emissions are lower than the limits outlined in the GREENGUARD standard, then the product can be certified. Testing may take anywhere from one to three months and the cost to certify a product family varies depending on the number and nature of the products being tested. UL Environment acquired the GREENGUARD brand as part of its purchase of Air Quality Systems, Inc. and the Greenguard Environmental Institute (GEI) in 2011. In the early days, despite GREENGUARD’s inclusion in EPA purchasing specifications, only a handful of manufac-
turers were signing on for testing. “At first it was tough sledding. When we started to call and tell people about the program we got hung up on a lot,” says Scott Steady, product manager, indoor air quality at UL Environment. Over time, however, as big box suppliers like Home Depot began carrying GREENGUARD Certified products, and contractors started ordering them for large scale builds, manufacturers caught on. In many ways, recognition and use of GREENGUARD Certification paralleled the rise of the broader green building movement. As architects and engineers designed higher performance building envelopes to heat and cool buildings more efficiently, there was a corresponding
“Demand for these certifications and transparency documents has led to manufacturing changes that have
resulted in a reduction of cancer
causing chemicals on product surfaces and have given companies a platform to communicate what they’ve done,”
— Paul Firth, UL Environment product manager , sustainability services
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ABOVE GREENGUARD Certification requires that products meet some of the world’s most rigorous and comprehensive limits for low emissions of volatile organic compounds into indoor environments.
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UL Environment acquires the GREENGUARD brand as part of its purchase of Air Quality Sciences and the Greenguard Environmental Institute
UL TIMELINE HIGHLIGHTS
UL updates its offerings to focus on five dedicated businesses areas: product safety, verification services, life and health, knowledge services, and environment UL Environment division launched by its parent company GREENGUARD Certification becomes the basis for the LEED credit for low-emitting furniture UL issues its 500th standard UL publishes its first Standard for Safety, titled “Tin Clad Fire Doors.” Founder William Henry Merrill opens Underwriters’ Electrical Bureau
ECOLOGO
ECOLOGO Certification testifies to a product’s reduced environmental impact across its lifecycle, from the point of extraction, to production, use, and end-oflife recycling. An ECOLOGO mark signifies that the product has undergone testing against the relevant standard, while functioning as a stamp of legitimacy in an industry rife with misleading green marketing claims. Some 30,000 products are
UL expands internationally, certifying Europeanmade products
2010 2009 2002 1985 1956 1903
loss in ventilation; chemicals and organic compounds such as benzine, formaldehyde, and styrene that used to seep out of buildings with the hot and cold were now trapped inside. There was a greater need to protect against emissions from printers, pressed wood furniture, paints, carpet adhesives, and other home and office building products. The industry term “source control” cropped up in codes, ratings, and procurement policies: a nicer way of saying indoor air pollution control. “You either achieve that through ventilation or low-emitting sources,” Steady says. Across the building industry, the practice of greenwashing, which ranges from vague, unqualified marketing claims that describe a product as “green” or “eco-friendly,” to outright fabrication about a product’s environmental impact, has been widely reported. The issue came to a head in 2012 when the Federal Trade Commission filed suit against two of the nation’s leading paint companies, Sherwin-Williams and PPG Architectural Finishes, alleging that the companies made deceptive claims that their interior paints contained “zero” volatile organic compounds. The FTC claimed this was not true for tinted paint, which typically has much higher levels of the compounds, and which consumers usually buy. Following a settlement with the two companies, the FTC issued revised Green Guides that included specific language on the use of carbon offsets, “green” certifications and seals, and renewable energy and renewable materials claims. These revised rules were a major boon to the GREENGUARD Certification program and have drawn attention to the need for more honest and objective disclosure tools. Today, some 600 companies offer products with a GREENGUARD Certification, including insulation by Owens Corning and BASF, paint by Sherwin-Williams and BEHR, furniture by Herman Miller and Haworth, and flooring by Shaw and Mohawk. Since 2011, the number of products to achieve GREENGUARD Certification has increased by at least 20% every year, and
1982
ABOVE ECOLOGO Certification testifies to a product’s reduced environmental impact across its lifecycle, from the point of extraction, to production, use, and end-of-life recycling.
UL Environment has recently expanded their certification program into cleaning prodcuts and the baby product market, certifying cleaning supplies, low-emitting cribs, crib mattresses, and baby clothes. Electronics are another industry in which the GREENGUARD certification is gaining a foothold. In January, UL Environment and LG Electronics announced that LG’s new 55-, 65- and 77-inch class OLED TVs have earned GREENGUARD Certification, which sets a new precedent for television manufacturers to reduce substances in TV products that can contribute to high chemical and formaldehyde exposures. Furniture manufacturers have already taken great strides to reduce their chemical emissions. Larry Dykhuis, senior sustainability manager at Herman Miller, Inc., reports that 85% of the company’s furniture designer’s global sales and more than 90% of its North American sales come from 60 GREENGUARD-certified product lines, including Mira 2, Action Office, and Canvas Office Landscape. He said the entire furniture industry has veered away from veneered products with wood as substrate—particleboards, plywood, and fiberboard—in favor of lower-emitting products with UV-cured topcoats and sealers. “Some type of indoor air quality certification is de facto, or almost, requirement,” Dykhuis says. “There is a growing awareness about health and wellness in the office spaces. It is our customers and ourselves that are concerned about healthy environment and indoor air quality—aside from building certification.” Steady predicts the use and recognition of GREENGUARD will continue to grow with the ongoing adaptation of LEED version 4 standards, which will provide LEED points for using GREENGUARD-certificatied materials for building, wall, floor, paint, and adhesive sealants. Among manufacturers, what was once the voluntary practice of a few early adopters will become the new normal. “As we move from the voluntary leadership of a few builders to a climate in which certifications become more integrated into code, it will be difficult to sell products that aren’t certified for low emissions; a builder might lose 30 to 40% of their bids if they can’t offer certified products, so they become the norm,” Steady says.
2011
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ECOLOGO Certified, including building materials, flooring, chemicals and plastics, cleaning and personal care products, office products, and electronics. These standards set metrics for a wide variety of criteria in categories such as recycled content, renewable energy, hazardous waste, and indoor air quality. One of the first companies to earn ECOLOGO Certification for a product was Sprint, in an effort to demonstrate that the glass, heavy metal, and plastic components of their phones were properly recycled. In the building construction materials category, 86 product families, including dozens of gypsum boards and adhesive sealants, have been certified. According to William F. Hoffman III, senior scientist and corporate fellow at
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UL Environment, the standards used for the ECOLOGO certification program are multi-attribute and vary depending on the product or service covered by the standard. Restrictions on certain hazardous substances, for example, may require emissions testing or content testing using wet chemistry techniques. Testing using sweat or saliva simulants to extract substances from a product may be used to assess the availability of substances of concern. Energy-use tests may require lab bench measurement of electricity used by the product, sometimes under multiple use modes. Some standards have an end of life recyclability requirement, which is assessed by disassembly and determination of the recyclability of the parts of the product. Other products require function-
ality testing such as puncture testing for drywall or cleaning ability for soaps. In other words, the certification process can get quite complicated. Testing takes a few hours to a few days in most cases, although some tests, such as those for biodegradability, may take months. The broad range of test methods employed for ECOLOGO certification, and UL Environment’s effort to ensure consensus with standards developed by other authoritative bodies such as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the US EPA, make the scientific credentials of UL Environgbdmagazine.com
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sustainability services.
— Paul Firth, UL Environment product manager ,
capture something that has actual merit today.”
devices shocking you anymore—it’s meant to
only physical safety—you won’t find electrical
incorporate the environment and health within
promote its commitment to safety, it needed to
“ More than a decade ago, UL realized to best gb&d
that definition. Safety is meant to encompass not
LEFT Furniture manufacturers have already taken great strides to reduce their chemical emissions. Herman Miller reports that 85% of the company’s furniture designer’s global sales and more than 90% of its North American sales come from 60 GREENGUARD-certified products.
WHERE DOES UL CONDUCT IT’S product testing?
Marietta, Georgia U.S.A Cologne, Germany Kyoto, Japan Nansha, China
BY THE NUMBERS 900
900
number of sustainable product specifications and purchasing guidelines in which GREENGUARD and ECOLOGO are referenced
The rough number of companies that offer products with GREENGUARD Certification 30,000
Rough number of products that are ECOLOGO certified 20%
300
Percentage increase in products obtaining GREENGUARD certification since 2011
Number of Environmental Product Declarations that UL Environment has certified
ment’s staff particularly important. “As we develop standards and when new test methods are proposed, our scientific background is essential to understanding if the proposed method will provide useful results. Criteria typically have a limit that can’t be exceeded, and the test method has to be sensitive enough to detect the substance of interest below that limit. In some cases, there may be several methods that could be used, but because of interferences from other substances in the product, only one method will provide valid results. Without a deep technical background it would be difficult to answer these questions and assure quality results in the testing,” Hoffman says. Environmental
Product Declarations
Environmental Product Declarations are the rough environmental equivalent of the nutritional information found on the back of a cereal box: they tell the complete story of a product in a single written report, including information about a product’s environmental impact, such as global warming, ozone depletion, water pollution, and ozone creation. An EPD can also include other impacts that are of particular interest to the discloser, such as indoor air quality, carbon offsets, and corporate social responsibility. UL Environment has certified more than 300 EPDs, representing thousands of products. EPDs do not rank products, and the existence of an EPD for a product does not indicate that any environmental performance criteria have been met. Rather EPDs are a disclosure tool that helps purchasers better understand a product’s environmental qualities and repercussions so they can make more informed product selections. About 90% of EPDS are used in the B2B sense. “Many architects, builders, and designers are picking up EPDS for one or two of the most important points that will help them better build in the most responsible way possible,” Steady says. gb&d march–april 2015
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A
new car. A new carpet. That pressed wood dresser in your urban loft. They smell so fresh and so clean. And they are—sort of. But that characteristic scent they emit derives from something less physiologically pleasing: volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are carbon-based chemicals that evaporate quickly at room temperature and contribute to poor indoor air quality and smog. Studies by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other researchers have found that VOCs are common in indoor environments and that their levels may be two to 1,000 times higher than outdoors. Add up the hours people spend indoors: sleeping, eating,
working in offices or at school—about 90%, according to 1989 EPA report to Congress—and VOC exposure becomes a genuine cause for concern, among not just environmental advocacy groups and health agencies, but also building contractors, architects, and manufacturers. “Indoor air quality is always going to be at the forefront of what we do,” says Amy Woodard, product steward and regulatory compliance officer at Tremco, a Cleveland-based supplier of roofing, sealant, weatherproofing, and passive fire control materials for commercial and residential construction and industrial applications. “It is important to protect the health of the occupants of any building being built.”
Founded in 1928 and employing more than 2,000 people, Tremco specializes in products that reduce air flow in and out of buildings: urethane and silicone sealants, deck coatings, waterproofing membranes, window glazings, and other specialty coating systems. Minimizing thermal loss is good for the environment and reduces energy bills. A win-win, as they say. Yet, when it comes to minimizing indoor air pollution, sealants pose particular challenges. While chemical emissions from VOCs may come from all manner of things—building products, furnishings and furniture, flooring, cabinetry, paint, and textiles—sealants, which are typically solvent-based, are among the worst culprits.
UL Environment in the Field Sustainable Solutions Tremco builds bridges between adjacent but often unconnected building elements—a both logical and necessary set of offerings
FOR WHEN YOU NEED A ONE-STOP-SHOP … PRODUCT: Proglaze ETA FUNCTION: Proglaze ETA is a transition assembly composed of pre-engineered, finished aluminum and silicone materials that comes in handy when builders are looking at irregular window geometries or when inspectors need to see through the gasket to verify that a project has the proper amount of sealant (thanks to its translucent silicone material). It renders Tremco a convenient, one-stop-stop for designers and builders.
By Amanda Koellner IN PRACTICE: The design and construction teams working on the Naval Hospital
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Replacement Project at Camp Pendleton needed assurance that the construction process could not only meet government speculations but also demonstrate performance throughout required warranties and beyond, which Proglaze ETA provided. “While it’s our desire to use small business in our subcontractor selection, it’s a great benefit for a complete product assembly to be provided by a sole source,” says Craig Winters, CQ Superintendent on the Clark/McCarthy Joint Venture on the project. “If you provide more scope to a manufacturer and have a problem or a question, you only have to go to one source for assistance. There’s less confusion, less ambiguity, and you avoid overlap of products or solutions.”
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Depending on the type of pollutant, its concentration, the duration of exposure, and the individual sensitivities of those exposed, VOC emissions from these materials can lead to immediate health effects, such as headaches, fatigue, and allergic reactions, and more serious health problems, including respiratory problems and cancer. Woodard works closely with her research and development team and product specialists from UL Environment to ensure Tremco products do not pose such health risks. A total of 64 Tremco products meet the GREENGUARD Gold Certification standard, UL Environment’s most rigorous standard for low indoor air emissions of VOCs, which complies with California Department of Public Health emissions
guidelines for schools and health care buildings. GREENGUARD Gold Certification also ensures Tremco’s products meet regional and state regulations, such as those adopted from the stringent South Coast Air Quality Management District of Los Angeles, and indoor air quality guidelines that require third party product testing and evaluation such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system. “We look at all of these factors when we develop our products. They help drive R&D formulation to make sure we stay competitive in the market,” Woodard says. Initial certification testing for a product family runs in the ballpark of $10,000, and recertification, which typically takes place
every three years, costs between $1,000– 1,500. Once certified, companies (like Tremco) can display the GREENGUARD logo on their website and marketing materials to promote the sustainability and safety of their products. Woodard said the partnership between Tremco and UL Environment has been extremely beneficial, not only by helping Tremco fulfill client demand for low-emitting sealants and waterproofing materials, but also by familiarizing her with the evolving codes, requirements, and certification protocols of a complex industry. “They have been incredibly helpful to me as a new employee in getting to understand their process and services and what they mean,” Woodard says. –Jeff Link
FOR WHEN YOU WANT TO AVOID CRACKS AND YELLOWING FROM THE SUN …
FOR WHEN YOU’RE BATTLING ENERGY LOSS DUE TO WEATHER …
wasted). Plus, these types of projects also must take acoustical, firestopping, and air-sealing requirements into consideration. This holistic approach to wall-system design also surpassed even Passive House standards when tested, leaving sufficient room for anything that might come up during actual construction conditions. gb&d
PRODUCT: ExoAir T3 Solutions PRODUCT: Dymonic 100 FUNCTION: This highly versatile sealant has the unique ability to adhere to damp and green concrete. It’s also paintable and won’t crack, craze, or yellow under extreme UV exposure. An added bonus? It’s jet-fuel resistance. Even after a year, Dynomic 100 extended 100% when tested in the lab. IN PRACTICE: This sealant withstood UV radiation and weathering during rigorous testing, meaning the likelihood that it will maintain its integrity and provide long-lasting protection against air and moisture infiltration without cracks is huge.
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FUNCTION: Throughout the seasons, energy moves through the walls—be it cool air lost to the outside in the summer or warm air in the winter. In the winter, the 50% average heat loss experienced in traditional buildings can be totally avoided with this sealant (which solves issues of varying window types, size, and geometry and plane changes when surfaces bond). IN PRACTICE: Multi-family housing projects benefit most from this solution, as an airtight and thermal bridge-free envelope ensures heat (and ensures that energy generated in a building isn’t
EXCLUSIVE EXTRAS To see more Tremco products, download the iPad edition or visit gbdmagazine.com.
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The Clean Energy Challenge April 14, 2015 in Chicago
Join venture capitalists, industry executives, civic leaders, the media and the public to recognizing new innovation impacting large scale building and urban energy efficiency standards. Including presentation of the $20,000 McCaffrey Building Efficiency Prize
JOIN US FOR TICKETS AND MORE INFO VISIT:
challenge.cleanenergytrust.org
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The Clean Energy Challenge is a nationally recognized accelerator for clean energy innovation. Run by Chicago-based Clean Energy Trust, the Challenge has led to the development and growth of more than 60 businesses throughout the Midwest.
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Typology Trendsetters Inner Workings Features Spaces Next Punch List
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80 Riveting in Richmond
A multi-use project nods to Rosie the Riveters
84 An Atypical Building in a Typical Office Park
A new HQ in CO stands out among its surroundings
88 Making Connections
This LEED Gold office space shines
92 Family Ranch Revamp
An architecture industry veteran pioneers a green paradise
96 Ruthless Efficiency
A Passive House presents a low-energy lifestyle
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A space that once provided childcare for Rosie the Riveters during World War II now is redesigned into a charter school, nonprofit HQ, and a National Park Service site in California By Amanda Koellner
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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF HAMILTON + AITKEN ARCHITECTS
At the time of its original construction back in 1943, the Maritime Center—located in the Bay Area near Berkley—provided childcare for Rosie the Riveters whose World War II duties kept them working in the nearby shipyards. The intended longevity of the structure didn’t initially exceed past the war, but the center remained in continuous operation for more than 50 years and is one of two of the 35 childcare centers from the era that still stands today. But a lack of a concrete foundation led to uneven settling and recent years of abandonment found the building in major disrepair. That is, until a consortium of groups came together and asked Hamilton + Aitken Architects to renovate the space. The Rosie the Riveter Trust lead the overall effort (and acted as the overall project sponsor) by seeking grants and other funding to pay for the effort in conjunction with the National Park Services, who would soon share occupance of the building. The City of Richmond also provided funding as part of their redevelopment program, and the West Contra Costa Unified School District chipped in; as the new building would go on to house a charter school. Finally, the Richmond Community Foundation joined as the tenant for the second floor space. Architect Chad Hamilton says that this amalgam, while exciting, led to major challenges, including the fact that the gbdmagazine.com
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RIGHT Interior features, such as casework and built-in furniture, were restored from the original building as the remodel took shape. LEFT The team behind this project was able to preserve a second-floor exit slide from the original structure, featuring a corkscrew shape and three porthole windows that peek into the yard. It’s inoperable today, but visitors can look through glass panels at the top and bottom.
building had to be made safe and usable for children, the historic integrity of the space had to be preserved, and the funders required LEED certification (the latter was a no-brainer for Hamilton, whose firm always “takes energy savings and sustainability into consideration”). “We started our sustainability design process by focusing on areas that would contribute the most to improve the building from a teaching and learning perspective,” Hamilton says. “Probably the most important sustainable elements for the school design are good acoustics, natural daylight, and high indoor air quality.” Taking this into account, the design features windows in every office and classroom space, skylights to improve and balance daylight, soundproofing, an exceptional heating and ventilation system, and no products that could emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The end result? A LEED Gold for Schools certification and achieved energy savings of more than 22% better than the required state standards. The road to this coveted certification wasn’t without its bumps, as the team at Alten Construction says that new utilities, grading, paving, landscaping, irrigation, fencing, bio-swales, site accessories and improvements were all necessary. Building construction included a new foundation, structural repairs, seismic upgrades, complete re-roofing, selective reframing, salvage and reinstallation of indicated materials, rehabilitation of materials like doors and windows, insulation, finishes, and much more. “When we first saw the building, it was sinking in multiple areas, it was unoccupied for many years, and just in bad shape,” says Alten Construction project manager James Mitchell, speaking with field superintendent Harry Torrano. “We pushed through the daily issues of a construction project and made it happen. I drive by it frequently now and can really say it looks really nice and has added a positive outlook on the neighborhood gb&d
and community of Richmond.” Hamilton notes that the requirements for preserving the building’s historic fabric also helped reinforce the team’s desire to rescue and reuse as much of the original building as possible. Not everything was salvageable though, as toxic materials and dryrot lingered on many of the materials. But most of the exterior wood siding and trim was reused, and interior features like casework and built-in furniture were restored, too. When entirely new materials were needed, Hamilton looked for modern equivalents of the materials that were used historically. The project is also punctuated by a turf yard, bio-swale areas for water treatment, cool roofing, and water filtration swales for diverting rainwater runoff. Perhaps the most satisfying conclusion is the fact that the Maritime Center is located in one of the Bay Area’s more economically depressed communities, as Hamilton says, and the building will provide better educational opportunities and services to the community. “I’m so gratified to be a part of that effort because many of the ‘Rosies’ that worked in the shipyards around the San Francisco Bay moved here from all over the country, including the Deep South,” he says. “And when the war effort wound down, they were left without the good paying jobs they once had. The Maritime Center will do a little bit to help their grandchildren find better opportunities.” gb&d
PROJECT LOCATION Richmond, CA Program Joint-use facility; K-2 charter school, nonprofit HQ, and a National Park Service site Size 24,408 ft² Completion 2011 Certifications LEED Gold for schools Awards AIA San Francisco Honor Award
TEAM Historic Preservation Architect Siegel & Strain Structural Engineer SOHA Engineers Civil Engineer Pacific Engineering Mechanical Engineer H&M Mechanical Group Landscape Architect Keller Mitchell & Co. Acoustics Walsh Norris Commissioning Guttman & Blaevoet Food Service Jerry Brown Design
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Performance apparel, cycling gear, and footwear company Pearl Izumi’s new HQ stands out among its surroundings By Jeff Link
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This 54,000-square-foot facility is clad in exposed steel and sheltered by overhauling dormers that let in daylight and provide natural cooling through passive thermal chimneys.
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E.J. Meade, principal architect at Arch11, calls the new Pearl Izumi corporate headquarters a fragmented design barn. That might not be the most glitzy description for the buzzing home base of the manufacturer of some of the world’s most sought-after performance apparel, cycling gear, and footwear—but the name is nevertheless fitting. Situated in a corporate office park on an uplifted hillside east of the Colorado Front Range, the newly built 54,000-square-foot facility is clad in exposed steel and sheltered by overhanging dormers that let in daylight and provide natural cooling through passive thermal chimneys. The building houses the research and design, prototyping and testing, marketing, management, and financial functions for roughly 200 Pearl Izumi employees. A huge main floor is home to a shared workspace alive with the sounds of sewing machines, designers scribbling away, and employee-athletes in a yoga room, gym, and performance testing area. There is a living room fireplace that looks out at the mountains.
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“I’d call it an atypical build in a typical office park. We gave Pearl Izumi an iconic headquarters that not only responds to who they are as a company but also responds to the site unlike any other building in the area.” E.J. Meade, Arch11
The building applies the Frank Lloyd Wright school of organic architecture to a western geology, taking its cues from the syncline rock layers and agricultural sheds of eastern Colorado. The walls are not exactly plumb. The entrywall is made from recycled snow fencing recovered in Wyoming. Large pitched roofs create outdoor workspaces and extend beyond the building envelope to protect against bitter western winds and intense summer heat. A central courtyard allows sun
PROJECT LOCATION Louisville, CO Program Manufacturer HQ Size 54,000 ft2 Completion 2013 Cost $209/ft2
TEAM ARCHITECT Arch11 and ZGF Contractor Haselden Construction Engineer and Project Management BuroHappold Engineering Owner’s Representative Bill Mascarenez Civil Engineer Creative Civil Solutions MEP Engineer DMCE
SUPPLIERS Windows Eagle SIPS Premier
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in but shields the wind, making it usable by employees 365 days a year, just like the brand promise Pearl Izumi makes about its athletic wear. The ultra high-performance building envelope has an R-value three to four times greater than a building of equal dimensions. High performance glazing reduces heat on the northern side of the building, while preserving it to the south. Flyash concrete and steel skin lock in heat. When the building was completed in January 2014, it must have come as something of a shock to the tenants of the 100 or so nearby corporate offices, including Boulder Sausage, ITW Industrial Finishing, and Rockmont Industries, occupying the Colorado Technology Center in Louisville, Colorado. “I’d call it an atypical build in a typical office park. We gave Pearl Izumi an iconic headquarters that not only responds to who they are as a company but
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also responds to the site unlike any other building in the area,” Meade says. For a company who pledges, “We’re not like other companies. We are Pearl Izumi, champions of the human machine,” being an architectural outlier would seem like success. Former Pearl Izumi CEO Juergen Eckmann commissioned the $9.8 million project in May 2012. The joint venture was led by Randy McGee of ZGF Architects, in partnership with Arch11, engineering firm BuroHappold, and contractor Haselden. The six-week charette brought together the Pearl Izumi executive board, sales and design teams, and owner’s representative Bill Mascarenez. “For us, we were a small firm. When we jumped in, we were six people. Partnering with ZGF a firm with over 100 people was a way for us show our ability but learn from a bigger business,” Meade says. gb&d
OPPOSITE A huge main floor is home to a shared workspace alive with the sounds of sewing machines, designers scribbling away, and employee-athletes in a yoga room, gym, and performance testing area. BELOW Large pitched roofs create outdoor workspaces and extend beyond the building envelope to protect against bitter western winds and intense summer heat.
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PHOTOS: MIKE SINCLAIR
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PROJECT LOCATION Mission Woods, Kansas Program C omplete office building renovation and addition Size Four stories, 41,700 ft2 Completion 2014 Awards AIA Kansas Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture Cost Withheld
TEAM CLIENT Karbank Real Estate/ Steve Karbank Architect R MTA Contractor Jonkman Construction Mechanical Consultant B ob D. Campbell and Co. Plumbing Consultant B C Engineers, Inc. Electrical Consultant M Panethiere & Associates Landscape Consultant Christopher Kusske Mechanical Engineer Design Mechanical Electrical Engineer P ro Electric Roofing Western Roofing Plumbing Central Plumbing Carpentry Firebaugh
Kansas City’s Barney Building was a drab structure in a heavily trafficked area of the city lacking a relationship to its bustling surroundings until this makeover—on track for LEED Gold—came to the rescue By Vincent Caruso
Resting idly at an address that enjoys the company of heavy motor traffic and the heart of Kansas City’s nearby downtown shopping district, the aging mid-century office building at 2000 Shawnee Mission Parkway appeared to have been quietly giving its enviable inheritances to the wear of time when it was brought to the professional care of RMTA. Constructed in 1968, the structure has since housed a diverse range of tenants, most of which opted to decamp in recent years—chased away by an apparent lack of necessary upkeep and general maintenance. This enduring neglect coupled with a drab, colorless exterior, seemed to ultimately demolish any chances of the building commanding the attention of the lit-
eral thousands of daily passersby. Typical of mid-century architecture, the windows were characterized by “small openings running vertically up the building,” as recalled by Mike Paxton, RMTA principal architect, offering the interior “little connection to the outside world,” as the building itself held little connection to the world immediately in front of it. Wise to the potential commercial advantages still guarded by the space’s prime location and amply populated neighboring activity, Karbank Real Estate Company hopped aboard with the intention of saving a sinking ship, enlisting the services of RMTA, with whom they have maintained a longstanding business relationship of similar ventures. Residing
SUPPLIERS Rainscreen Prodema Floor Tile Kansas Limestone Bamboo Decking PlybooDex Recycled Glass Countertops Vetrazzo Microturbine Generators Capstone Cork Rubber Flooring Zandur Wall Tiles Porcelanosa and Royal Mosa Kansas Limestone U.S. Stone Industries Carpet Shaw Contract Group Furniture Knoll, Herman Miller, Vitra
RIGHT The building’s columns and courtyard were some of the only positive elements left behind from the original design.
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FAR LEFT The building’s exterior window system was once narrow and restricting but now welcomes in natural daylight in sizable quantities.
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ABOVE & FACING PAGE PHOTOS: MIKE SINCLAIR. LEFT PHOTOS: CAT SZALKOWSKI
ABOVE The rainchains standout as a favorite element of the project, as they function as both a piece of sculpture and a vehicle to carry rainwater, giving off a unique connection between the building and nature.
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in the same city as the desired property, Karbank knew the neighborhood and its inhabitants well enough to create “a new market niche,” as Paxton puts it, within its quarters. Suburban business executives in the Kansas City metropolitan area would enjoy the flavor of urban character at the comfort of suburban convenience. While the building was largely resigned to the faded background, concealed by its own lack of personality, there existed still certain qualities that RMTA found interesting whilst examining the premises. “The building had an interesting precast soffit running around it supported by free-standing columns,” Paxton notes, discovering that “this created a distinct look for the building and an interesting entry courtyard,” only, however, to be deafened by the colorless poverty of dreary off-white tones. This and other minor discoveries inspired the approach that would guide the parties tackling the project. Karbank and the RMTA team agreed that while it was surely important to retain the historical qualities of the mid-century aesthetic, there were no shortage of overdue upgrades and makeovers competing for priority. Pointing the chisel to the weathered visage in a way that was respectful yet rehabilitative was the first objective. The character of the demographic-at-hand was also considered. A few of the recognizable traits that generally define an urban professional are well educated with a punctuated interest in style and a predilection for health and fitness, as well as a progressive moral conscience. It would be upon reviewing these considerations that an LED light bulb switched on in their minds. While RMTA are surely seasoned professionals at honing their craft in ways that balance environmental consciousness with stylistic excellence, their client was not just enthusiastic about the attractive prospects of sustainability as a selling point to responsible professionals but confident too that elevating the objective to achieving LEED certification was a possigb&d
bility within reach for the acquired space, given the foreseeable feasibility of much of its restoration and recovery. Green ethics were considered all the way down to whence product materials were collated, half of which—including the limestone floor tiles—were retrieved regionally. Occupancy sensors govern the LED lighting that illuminates the revamped dwellings only as need be. The exterior window system, once narrow and restricting and now vast and inviting, welcomes in natural daylight in sizable quantities. Furnished with Capstone MicroTurbine generators, natural gas powers the haunt without taking any environmental casualties. RMTA project manager Kyle Patneau reflects proudly, “Our client’s unwillingness to compromise good design was what made this project successful.” And it is true that, once a project is given the “green light,” it is not just an individual devotion to energy efficient building
standards that thrive but a contagious sentiment to others as well. Third parties involved marched to the LEED beat quite readily. “The general contractor really got on board with the LEED concept,” recounts Paxton, “and was extremely diligent in their recycling of the existing building materials, as well as minimizing construction waste.” While attaining LEED certification status was in the cards from the very beginning, discussions hadn’t touched upon which rung on the ladder they’d ultimately grasp—merely achieving a certification of any kind was a commendable enough back-patter. “The building is anticipated to achieve LEED Gold,” Paxton divulges. It was a feat unexpected but, according to Patneau, after crunching the numbers at the last minute they discovered they applied. What a very pleasant surprise. gb&d
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An architecture industry veteran commences a solo career and shakes up an Austin neighborhood with pivotal green paradise By Vincent Caruso
It is not an uncommon promise in hearts of the ambitious, good-natured public to reward one’s deserving parental guardians with the opulence of high living in grace for the years of unyielding, though at times tested, unconditional love. Once vocational success has been achieved and fortunes have been claimed, it will be time for mother to be wheeled to the luxury condo and spend the rest of her years tended to by the five-star obedience of personal chefs and pool boys. For most of us, the fiscal realities of middle-American adulthood compromise this noble goal and our illusory luxury condos are suddenly reintroduced as nursing homes or guest bedrooms. When the design and construction of homes is in fact your vocation, however, it pulls feasibility of such a kind bestowal in reach. Such was the case with Alex Finnell and his parents—Austin transplants Richard and Susanna. Finnell, having freshly departed from architect firm KRDB, was eager to draft his debut project as a solo artist under his new company, Finn Design Build, on an improved living arrangement for his parents, in an aim to better accommodate their collective needs. For Susanna, having previously suffered an aneurism, mobility and accessibility were imperatives, and Finnell’s grandmother—also a Bouldin Creek Ranch occupant—is
LEFT The Bouldin Creek Ranch shelters two separate—one frontal and one rear— courtyards occupying what would make both angular openings on the oversized letter “Z.”
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PHOTOS: KIMBERLY DAVIS
S PAC E S L I V E
“Warm modern� is how the designer describes this project, citing its enchanting clarity and light, cozy definition.
SPACES LEARN WORK LIVE
entering her 97th year, sharing like needs. In the interest of privacy, the Finnells had initially opted to construct a secluded, riverside property from scratch in a quieter part of town. “[It was] ultimately impractical,” as Finnell recounts. While gorgeous abundant trees sheltered the property and a discreet pathway made water engagements possible, the nonlinear topography posed an obstacle to accessibility. In turn, Finnell opted to, rather than capture the “privacy and drama” of his initial prospect, set up camp elsewhere and invent it all on his own. “Positively electric” is how Finnell describes the Bouldin Creek neighborhood, whose food trucks, shopping boutiques, cafés, and cocktail taverns keep the district alight with steady foot traffic. Immediately, this may not seem like a particularly intuitive habitat for Finnell family lion and lioness, nestling cozily into their golden years after careers long lending their wisdom and esprit to the academic eminence of the University of Texas, Texas A&M, and the University of Nebraska. However, it is the singularity of the living quarters that Finnell himself developed in this buzzing environ-
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ment that creates a functioning duality of the virtue of serenity and the hubbub of commerce. Acquiring a vacant lot in this dynamic vicinage and wringing maximal use from the neighboring abodes, Finnell fashioned his unfolding structure into a rather unusual formation. Exhibiting the configuration of a “z-shape,” the Bouldin
Creek Ranch shelters two separate—one frontal and one rear—courtyards occupying what would make both angular openings on the oversized letter “Z.” The length of the house run from north to south as Finnell illustrates, drawing shade over one courtyard and commanding sunshine simultaneously over the other, depending on the time of day. The gbdmagazine.com
PHOTOS: KIMBERLY DAVIS
THIS PAGE The front courtyard is enterable from the kitchen, and enjoys the tranquility of a pond and breakfast area.
SPACES
LEFT The Bouldin Creek Ranch project has received a five-out-offive-star rating from Austin Energy’s Green Building Program and reached LEED Platinum.
PROJECT LOCATION Austin, TX Size 2,900ft2 (3,650ft2 including garage and unconditioned storage) Completion 2012 Program Multi-generational residence with integrated caregiver’s suite (4 bedroom, 4.5 bathroom) Awards LEED Platinum, Austin Energy’s Green Building Program 5 Star Rating (5 out of 5) Cost $700,000
TEAM LEEDs Consultant Contects Landscape Design & Construction D-Crain Design & Construction Interior Design Anne Breux Studio Finn Design Build Dan Fields
SUPPLIERS front courtyard, which is enterable from the kitchen, enjoys the tranquility of a pond and breakfast area. Meanwhile, in the rear courtyard’s especially obscured street view, a pool was built and an elevated garden planted to encompass the perimeter. Also noteworthy is the sensibly environmental-headed manner behind the project. Furnished with state-of-the-art green technology including a 100KW PV solar array, 2,500 gallon rainwater collection, a recirculating hot water pump, and a Geothermal HVAC with desuperheater hot water recovery, the home has gb&d
been a magnet for praise from the green energy community. In recognition for its sustainable framework, it has received a five-out-of-five-star rating from Austin Energy’s Green Building Program and reached LEED Platinum. “Warm modern” is the aesthetic Alex Finnell ascribes to his parent’s new dwellings, citing its enchanting clarity and light, cozy definition. “It is simple and inspiring. Warm modern.” Since the success of Bouldin Creek Ranch, Finn Design Build has been busily in the process of finishing their second project with a healthy queue of forthcoming projects growing. gb&d
Metal Cladding Berridge Paint Sherman Williams ProMar Zero VOC Cabinet Finish ML Campbell “Agualente” Sliding Glass Doors Arcadia Windows Gerkin Countertops Silestone & Caesarstone Appliances Miele Rainwater Tank Bluescope Linear Trough Drains Quick Drain Fixtures Hansgrohe Geothermal HVAC Bosch Lutron RadioRA Lighting Controls Lutron Solar Panels Lumos
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RUTHLESS EFFICIENCY
The nearly seamless Pumpkin Ridge Passive House models a livable, low-energy lifestyle By Julie Schaeffer
When Bryan and Stephanie Farris moved into their custom-build home near Portland, anyone sending housewarming gifts was better off making a personal delivery. Not because sending next-day would be some breach of etiquette, but because the home’s meticulously constructed envelope was so airtight that the Farris family couldn’t hear trucks pulling up in the driveway (they later installed an alarm). If the wind is whipping up outside with 30-mile-per-hour gusts, the interior is still whisper-quiet. One of the few things Stephanie misses in her new home is the sound of raindrops falling outside. “It’s so airtight it almost makes your ears pop,” Bryan Farris says. “You can kind of feel the pressure change when someone opens the door.” Consider it the strong, silent type. Known as the Pumpkin Ridge Passive House, the Farris’s 3,600-foot home in North Plains, Oregon, exemplifies the passive house principles of minimizing
energy loss and maximizing energy gains. Built with efficient appliances and lighting, triple-glazed windows, and an ultra-tight, 14-inch envelope (standard walls are six inches), it’s insulated, efficient, and stays a constant 71 degrees. To put that into perspective, the home requires 8,000 BTUs for peak heat load—a significant drop from the 90,000 BTUs needed for a standard home. It’s good, then, that the home uses LED lightbulbs, seeing as conventional bulbs would actually put out too much heat. The Farris’s weighed the options and discovered it was roughly 8% more to ditch a standard layout and go with a passive house design with a heat recovery ventilation (HRV) system to circulate air. They estimate they’ll see payback for the added cost of the efficient design within 10–12 years, and that’s before factoring in the savings provided by the solar panels they recently installed, which actually make their residence a net positive home.
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PHOTOS: JEFF AMRAN
PHOTOS: JEFF AMRAN
The architect on this project describes the home as “a simple rectangle with windows that create a fun, energetic little facade.”
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PROJECT LOCATION North Plains, OR Program Passive House Size 3,093 ft2 Completion 2014 Certifications PHIUS+, DOE Zero Energy Ready Home, Earth Advantage Platinum
TEAM ARCHITECT S cott Edwards Architecture Builder Hammer & Hand Mechanical Consultant J onathan Cohen of Imagine Energy. Structural Engineer Carissa Farkas Engineering CPHC Skylar Swinford, Hammer & Hand
SUPPLIERS
ABOVE The clients behind this project discovered it was roughly 8% more to ditch a standard layout and go with a passive house design with a heat recovery ventilation (HRV) system to circulate air.
According to Sam Hagerman, whose firm Hammer & Hand constructed the home, the hybrid system they devised with a heat pump and HRV system turned the ductwork into both a heating and cooling distribution network. Thanks to the magic of passive homes, it resulted in a single utility that handles heating, ventilation, and exhaust, simplifying the entire layout. “We struggle because heating and cooling equipment is too big
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for our needs but luckily there are now small, efficient heat pumps,” he says. Built over nine months on a south-facing site nestled into a hillside, Pumpkin Ridge was made to be a “machine for living,” says architect Rick Berry of Scott Edwards Architects, who heavily factored simplicity and clarity of mind into his design of the 80-foot-long building. With solar gain acting as such a key factor for heating, Berry built in a gabled overhang for the upper level and a system of 7-by-6foot sliding cedar shades that could be dialed-back to control for varying sunlight, an intuitive change as simple as making a swipe on a smartphone. “I wanted to create a house for families,” says Berry, who designed an elongated structure to create the com-
mon space the Farris’ wanted while also allowing every room to take advantage of the view. “The house is a simple rectangle with windows that create a fun, energetic little facade.” “There’s no sacrifice,” Bryan Farris says of the new home. “The difference is that you put more thought and engineering on the front end of the house, and you just build a smarter house.” Requiring as little work as possible, the Pumpkin Ridge Home is smart in that it requires minimum effort for maximum comfort. Just check the thermostat. Ironically, since the advanced heating and ventilation system runs relatively incident free, the Farris’s haven’t had to touch it since reading the directions during set up. gb&d gbdmagazine.com
PHOTOS: JEFF AMRAN
Windows Zola Windows Insulations GreenFiber Insulation, Big Sky Insulations Wetflash R-Guard System Prosoco Agean and SIGA Tape Small Planet Workshop
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Up Front Typology Trendsetters Inner Workings Features Spaces Next Punch List
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100 Wise Investment
Water conservation takes centerstage in Chicago’s WackerRandolph Building
103 Turning Waste into Resources
How an exciting proposal could turn water waste into fertilizer, energy, and jobs
106 Bringing the Outside in
Walgreens employs biophilic design to connect its stores to the outdoors
109 Michigan Gets Greener
IKEA expands its already massive solar array
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Wise Investment American Realty Advisors debuts its new sustainability program with big league water conservation at Chicago’s Wacker-Randolph tower By Brian Barth
When the investment community chooses sustainability as a criteria, the skylines of the world sway in response. Last year, the national real estate investment firm American Realty Advisors made a major retrofit of its 31-story office tower at 150 Wacker Dr. in the financial district of downtown Chicago, focusing on water conservation among other sustainability measures. The results are a 4,000-gallon-per-day reduction in water use, totaling 1 million gallons per year—equivalent to 21% less consumption. “We took a comprehensive look at operations and maintenance,” says Jay Butterfield, managing director of fund/separate account operations at American, “and found that in addition to saving the water itself, the strategy significantly reduced
BELOW Jay Butterfield, managing director of fund/ separate account operations at American Realty Advisors.
the energy needed to handle water and sewage.” Simply by replacing 115 restroom sink aerators, four showers, and three women’s toilets with lower flow versions, the energy needed to handle water and sewage for the building was reduced by 90,750 kilowatt hours per year, which equates to a savings of 62.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. “These are substantial numbers that will move the needle in a big way, both for the environment and for the asset’s bottom line,” say Butterfield. Butterfield says that investors can expect an ongoing annual savings of up to three times the amount of the initial one-time cost of installing the water conservation fixtures. The Wacker-Randolph Building received several other highly targeted alterations, such as reducing air handler run times and installing a reflective roof membrane to reduce heat gain. Butterfield estimates that the least-change-for-greatest-effect approach will result in a five-month payback period on the investment. “The long-term benefits of these specific sustainability features heavily outweighed any initial capital required for implementation.” The building was already LEED certified, but is expecting recertification with LEED Silver as a result of the renovations. REAPING MULTIPLE REWARDS Los Angeles-based American Realty Advisors is an investment manager for institutional investors, a service it has provided for over a quarter century to primary investors and developers in the office, industrial, multi-family, and retail sectors. With over $6 billion in assets under management, it has the weight to make a big impact on energy and resource use at a national scale. The Wacker-Randolph tower was the first of American’s assets to
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undergo a sustainability evaluation, but the process is now being applied to many others in its portfolio of office buildings, which includes 11.6 million square feet of real estate spread over 77 properties with a total fair market value of over $4 billion. As an investment firm, the company’s choices are ultimately driven by their clients. Citing EPA statistics that commercial buildings account for 39% of total energy use, 12% of total water consumption, and 38% of total greenhouse/carbon dioxide emissions domestically, Butterfield says that American “recognizes that commercial real estate can have a profound effect on the environment. Whether due to changes in the law, tenant demand, or property valuation, energy conservation and sustainable practices are becoming increasingly important to property owners and investors.” However, he emphasizes that return-driven investors are not necessarily wooed by elaborate sustainability-touting design concepts, but expect a highly practical response to these challenges. In launching their sustainability initiative, American first focused data collection, benchmarking each property’s energy and water consumption. They looked at things like utility and government rebates that could offset the cost of efficiency upgrades, particularly for their assets in drought-impacted areas where water conservation is being heavily incentivized. With this information in hand, they were able to identify the properties that could best benefit from an energy audit. A case study of each audited building is being developed in order to create a checklist of best practices that will be implemented across the portfolio. The company’s take-aways thus far? “Two big lessons we learned gbdmagazine.com
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“Sustainability is not only the right thing to do but also the smart thing to do. It gives portfolios a clear competitive advantage.” Jay Butterfield, American Realty Advisors
were that sustainability efforts do not need to cost a lot to improve the building’s efficiency and bottom line and, second, that it’s important to involve tenants with sustainability efforts from the beginning,” says Butterfield. At the Wacker-Randolph building, for example, they’ve implemented a green cleaning program that minimizes unhealthy cleaning compounds and strongly encourages recycling by the tenants. “We believe by ensuring that our tenants have healthy buildings that it will help our tenant retention,” adds Butterfield, emphasizing another link between their sustainability program and the rewards they are already seeing for investors. American’s research into the subject consistently shows that reducing a property’s energy usage by 30% results in up to a 5% increase in both net operating income and asset value. There is also a clear correlation between LEED certification and the attractiveness of a building to high quality tenants. “Sustainability is not only the right thing to do but also the smart thing to do,” says Butterfield. “It gives portfolios a clear competitive advantage.” gb&d gb&d
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LIVING FUTURE 2015
APRIL 1-3, 2015 SHERATON SEATTLE SEATTLE, WA
PLACE AND
COMMUNITY Join the world’s leading deep green practitioners for advanced education sessions, unforgettable keynotes and provocative conversations at the only TM conference rooted in the principles of the Living Building Challenge .
KEYNOTES
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin Environmental Advocate + Organizer
Jason F. McLennan
CEO, International Living Future Institute
Janine Benyus
Biologist, Innovator + Author
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Turning Waste Into Resources Fertilizer, energy, and job creation— Chicago’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation District wants to make the most of what goes down the drain
PHOTOS: JILL BRAZEL
By Brian Barth
When asked about her stance on water scarcity and reuse, Debra Shore, Commissioner of Chicago’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) for the past 8 years, paraphrases a quote from The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman: “In the last century, we moved water to people. In this century, people will move to water.” With roughly 20% of the world’s freshwater supply held in the Great Lakes, she and other forward-thinking politicians in the region are looking to innovative, sustainable ways to make the most of this increasingly sought-after resource in their backyards. There is growing sentiment that the population exodus from the gb&d
Rust Belt to the Sun Belt may soon reverse, placing civic leaders at a crossroads to envision and prepare for the shifts in land use, urban culture, and economic structure to come. Shore’s tenure as commissioner has become a platform for broadbased discussions on improving watershed management in the Chicagoland region, though those discussions center as much on the “sewershed”—what happens to Chicago’s water after it goes down the drain—as they do on the water held in Lake Michigan. Shore’s office has a slew of recent initiatives to capitalize on Chicago’s abundance of water, but they have nothing to do with making greater withdrawals
ABOVE Debra Shore, comissioner of Chicago’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation District for the past eight years.
from the lake. Instead she’s looking at ways the MWRD “can use the availability of treated water as driver for economic growth.” The volume of the Great Lakes may seem vast, yet “people intuitively get that it makes sense to use water more than once,” Shore says. Getting WET WMRD’s Calumet wastewater treatment plant sits at the heart of city’s old industrial core on Chicago’s Southside. Once an area of bustling working class neighborhoods and thriving factories, it has become increasingly derelict over the past 50 years. Littered with brownfields and deeply disinvested, there is one unmarch–april 2015
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Percentage of the world’s freshwater supply that is held in the Great Lakes
300m
Gallons of treated wastewater discharged daily into the Cal-Sag Channel
440
Tons of daily food waste that would be diverted from Chicago’s waste stream by a proposed program
agreement with a company called Illinois American Water to establish a “polishing” plant for bringing the Calumet effluent up to the various purity standards that may be required by companies setting up shop Annual pounds of fertilizer to be made in new the new industrial park. The from extracted highly company would also be contracted to lay the pipe and manage the sale and soluble phosphorus from Chicago’s distribution of treated wastewater to Stickney Water industrial customers.
10k
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park] is a serious thing,” says Felsen, who envisions the WET Zone as an integrated district that provides jobs along with other resources for the community, such as greenspace. His students are devising ways for this industrial park to actually produce some of the raw materials for manufacturing, such as hops vines (irrigated with effluent) for beer made with thoroughly treated wastewater. “All of the hops needed can’t be grown on-site, but we can grow some,” he says. “It’s very much about exhibiting parts of the process to people.” Political Alignment While the local design community brainstorms what Chicago’s future wastewater powered economy might look like, Shore is busy making the political case and aligning current infrastructure projects and the MWRD’s long-term fiscal strategy to support these goals. Unlike California and the Southwest where the arid climate (and ongoing drought) has created strong political will to reduce, reuse, and recycle water resources, “the largest barrier to reusing water in our area (Cook County),” says Shore, “is that potable water is so cheap. Scarcity won’t drive reuse.” But wastewater as an economic engine has struck a vibrant chord with the public and policymakers. The WET Zone is not yet formally recognized by the city, but the MWRD has made a preliminary
The Wastewater Economy Establishing a system for wastewater reuse is but one of Shore’s goals as commissioner. Two others are already advancing from concept to implementation—both of which contain a convincing economic argument. The anaerobic digesters at the Calumet wastewater plant produce methane in the decomposition of sewage sludge, which has always been harvested at a small scale to heat the facility, but will soon be available for sale to nearby industrial facilities for their own energy needs. A program is being established to divert 440 tons of food waste each day from Chicago’s waste stream that will feed into the biogas digesters, boosting methane production at the site by 160 %. “Preliminary engineering is underway and contracts are being negotiated,” Shore says. Likewise, phosphorus—another valuable wastewater resource—will soon be exported from Chicago’s Stickney Water Reclamation Plant as fertilizer. Ostara Nutrient Recovery, a Portland, Oregon-based company, has partnered with the MWRD to build a small facility at the site that will extract enough soluble phosphorus to produce nearly 10,000 tons of fertilizer, which will then be sold for $400 per ton under the trade name “Crystal Green.” Shore expects the facility to be operational by the end of 2015. gb&d gbdmagazine.com
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE METROPOLITAN WATER RECLAMATION DISTRICT OF GREATER CHICAGO
Reclamation Plant
deniable and untapped resource remaining: the 300 million gallons of treated wastewater discharged daily into the Cal-Sag Channel, the canal excavated a century ago to transmit barge traffic from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River and beyond to the Mississippi. In collaboration with Commissioner Shore’s office, Martin Felsen, a professor in the Illinois Institute of Technologies College of Architecture has proposed a “Water Enterprise Trade Zone” as an economic incubator to attract water-intensive industries and revitalize the area as an international hub for sustainable manufacturing technologies. Dubbed the “WET Zone,” students in Felsen’s design studio are “illustrating what an industrial park would look like next to a wastewater treatment plant powered by recycled water,” he says. So far they’ve identified eight industries that are heavily reliant on water and are likely to be drawn by the prospects of a more sustainable, less expensive source. They range from data centers, which use immense quantities of water for cooling servers, to more traditional industrial water users, such as paper mills and processors of agricultural products. Future-thinking industries such as vertical farms are also being considered along with off-the-wall recreational ideas, such as a faux ski slope. “The park part [of the industrial
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LANGUAGE OF LIGHT LIGHTFAIR.COM
NEW YORK, NY USA
Javits Center PRE-CONFERENCE
May 3 – 4, 2015 PHOTO CREDITS (1) WALL ILLUMINATION FANTASY OF PIOLE HIMEJI, HIMEJI-SHI, JAPAN | LIGHTING DESIGN: UCHIHARA CREATIVE LIGHTING DESIGN INC + TAKENAKA CORPORATION | PHOTOGRAPHY © MASAKI KAWAGUCHI (2) BRANZ KOSHIEN, NISHINOMIYA, JAPAN | LIGHTING DESIGN: AKARI+DESIGN ASSOCIATES | PHOTOGRAPHY © HIROYUKI TSUDA
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Bringing the Outside In Biophilic Design Connects Walgreens with the Natural Environment By Julie Schaeffer
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effect. A 2010 study published in Environmental Health and Preventative Medicine, compared the effects of walking through forests versus walking through urban areas. Pulse rate and salivary cortisol were reduced in individuals who walked through the forest rather than the city. Even more impressive is the fact that in forest walkers, parasympathetic nervous system activity—which occurs when we feel relaxed—increased by 56.1%, while sympathetic nervous system activity—which occurs when we feel stressed—decreased by 19.4%. But you don’t have to be in the forest for these effects to take hold: neuroscientists have found that views of natural scenes trigger more interactions of the opioid receptors in the large rear portion of the visual cortex. That said, biophilic design isn’t only about creating outside views and bringing plants and animals inside; it’s about representing nature, and that can happen in one of three ways, Heinking says. The first category of biophilic de-
RIGHT The first of two levels houses the retail store, which features tree representations under which terrazzo tile mimics a shadow beneath a tree canopy. BELOW When shoppers climb the stairs to the second level, which houses the pharmacy, it’s as if they’re moving beyond the treetops into the clouds.
sign, nature in space, refers to the representation of plants and animals in an interior space. It doesn’t have to be an actual tree, as you might find in, say, a Rainforest Café; it can be as simple as a pattern that represents a tree. The second category, nature of space, pertains to how one experiences a space walking through it. Do you want to interact with the space, peeking around the corner to see what’s on the other side? Does the lighting change? The third category, natural analogs, refers to fractal patterns. Movement in a natural setting, such as ocean waves crashing, fish swimming in an aquarium, and winds whispering through trees capture our attention. “You know how you tend to zone out when you stare at a fire?” Heinking says, “That’s a natural analog. Something that is constantly moving such that it almost hypnotizes us. It could even be a pattern on the floor that has a psychological and physiological benefit.” The goal of biophilic design, Heinking says, is that when people experience these features, they’ll feel happier and even be healthigbdmagazine.com
PHOTOS BY TOM ROSSITER
Walgreens Health System Pharmacy is taking drugstores into a new era with a location that features innovative biophilic design. The concept of biophilia, coined by the social psychologist Erich Fromm, stems from Greek roots meaning “love of life.” Popularized by Edward O. Wilson in his 1984 book, Biophilia, it holds that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. “It’s about nature-inspired design,” says Susan Heinking, VP and sustainability leader at VOA Associates, Inc., which designed the Walgreen’s store at Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Galter Pavilion in Chicago. “We live 90% of our time indoors, but there are many health benefits to being outside and part of nature. With biophilic design, we’re trying to marry the two. How can we bring nature into an interior space so people still benefit from a connection with nature even though they’re inside?” Scientists are well aware that time spent outdoors has a calming
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er. In chaotic and unsettling environments, the body’s sympathetic nervous system is engaged in a “fight-or-flight” response, while its parasympathetic nervous system is suppressed, causing fatigue. The result is stress, and as quantified by Roger Ulrich, Ph.D., a professor of architecture and landscape architecture at Texas A&M University, poor health. According to Ulrich’s research, biophilic design helps to reduce patient pain and stress during recovery. Although biophilic design didn’t take off until a year or two ago, it started to gain traction in the 2000s, when more and more research began showing its benefits—but it may have been around even longer. According to Heinking, what Frank Lloyd Wright called organic architecture was really biophilic design. “Wright gb&d
ABOVE The second floor is bright, dominated by a white and gray palette and bubble-shaped lights that look like illuminated clouds.
truly pioneered the concept under another time, and is the greatest practitioner of it to date,” she says. Walgreens always intended its Galter Pavilion location (at 251 E. Huron Street, downtown) to be flagship store but also wanted it to be a groundbreaking one. “They asked for a game-changer, something they’d never done before,” says Heinking, whose team also brought the city into the design. Chicagoans, she says, experience nature in lakefront parks, so those associations were pulled into the location. The first of two levels houses the retail store, which features tree representations under which terrazzo tile mimics a shadow beneath a tree canopy. When shoppers climb the stairs to the second level, which houses the pharmacy, it’s as if they’re moving beyond the treetops into the clouds.
“We live 90 percent of our time indoors, but there are many health benefits to being outside and part of nature. With biophilic design, we’re trying to marry the two.” Susan Heinking, VOA Associates, Inc.
It’s bright, dominated by a white and gray palette and bubble-shaped lights that look like illuminated clouds. “If I feel like I’m in a park, whether I’m an employee or a customer, I’m going to feel happy and be healthier,” Heinking says. gb&d march–april 2015
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Michigan Gets Greener IKEA—with a goal of generating as much energy as it consumes—expands its solar array to be the largest in the state By Julie Schaeffer BELOW IKEA has installed more than 70,000 solar panels on buildings across the world, like the ones seen below.
carbon dioxide, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. South Bend, Indiana-based Inovateus Solar, LLC, which specializes in large-scale solar installations, selected the JA Solar brand for this installation. The monocrystalline modules, designed for commercial use, such as on solar farms, are extremely efficient—a necessity in the Detroit metro area, which is often affected by severe weather. The Canton project is just a small part of IKEA’s pledge to solar. “It says how serious our commitment is to renewable energy, that even after having Michigan’s largest solar array, when we expanded the store; we expanded the array,” Roth says. The company—which owns and operates all of its solar arrays, as opposed to a leasing or operating them under a power purchase agreement—has set a goal of total energy independence by 2020. To
reach that target, IKEA installed more than 700,000 solar panels on buildings across the world. Close to 90% of its US locations utilize solar, with a total power generation goal of 40 megawatts. According to Roth, the solar arrays currently provide roughly 20 to 60% of a store’s total energy needs. The company also has two stores with geothermal systems, and has announced plans to purchase two wind farms in the US to date. Installation of IKEA’s new Canton store solar array is scheduled for this spring, with completion by summer. In addition to bringing clean energy, it will manifest additional advantages, says Samantha England, who handles sales and development at Inovateus. “The benefit of projects such as these is not only supplying clean energy, but creating green jobs. And that’s particularly important in and Detroit.” gb&d
IMAGE COURTESY OF IKEA
Home furnishings giant IKEA is making the Detroit area a little greener with an expanded solar array atop its Canton, Michigan store. This 311,000-square-foot location, which opened in June 2006, already boasts 4,160 solar panels that were installed in 2012, meaning the store houses Michigan’s largest solar array. Now, 765 more panels will be added atop a 44,000-square-foot expansion. “We had more rooftop space, so we did an analysis to determine if it would be productive to add more panels,” says Joseph Roth, who handles public affairs for IKEA. The 40,000-square-foot solar addition will consist of a 240.9-kilowatt system that produces 287,490 kilowatt hours of additional annual electricity. In total, the old and new arrays will produce 1,426,490 kilowatt hours of electricity yearly—equivalent to eliminating the emissions of 207 cars or reducing 984 tons of
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PUNCH LIST
June 15 | 16 | 17 | 2015
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Typology Trendsetters Inner Workings Features Spaces Next Punch List
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112 Person of Interest
ASID’s Fernando Arias wants to raise your quality of life
114 Material World
ECOR is turning cardboard waste and other cellulose fibers into a green building material
116 On the Boards
Herzog & de Meuron upcoming Nyt Hospital Nordsjælland
118 On the Spot
Guest editor Lisa Meier takes our questionnaire
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Person of Interest Fernando Arias
Fernando Arias has worked as a mechanic for the U.S. Army and Navy, obtained not one but two graduate degrees from Columbia University (one in urban design and architecture and another in public administration with a focus on environmental science and policy), practiced architecture for seven years in both New York City and Los Angeles, spearheaded global health and built-environment challenge projects at the Clinton Global Initiative, and now has helped to create a health and wellness program for the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). “I’ve always known I wanted to take the lead on issues that impact people and the communities that they live in,” he says. “Overall, I want to raise people’s quality of life.” We spoke with Arias about his work at ASID, the aging in place movement, and the population boom Earth is expected to hit by 2050. Interview by Amanda Koellner
gb&d: I understand that in your role as the director of strategic initiatives at ASID, you’ve helped develop and implement the ASID Protocols for Health and Wellness. Can you tell us about it? Fernando Arias: It’s a new education and technology platform to help approximately 40,000 designers and architects make smarter design decisions about projects, materials, and building components that place occupant health and wellness first. That 40,000 number is approximately 25% of the overall professional body of architects and designers and also the target audience for the first three years of this project. In practice, this is an education series that trains practitioners on health and wellness concepts and scenarios. It goes on to prepare them to use technical tools or platforms in a logical way for solving the design problems that are often solved through the sustainability marketplace and sifts through all of the labels, certifications, and standards. Right now, there’s a barrage of information, and it’s not clear what the trade-offs are if you go down one path versus another. But by taking heath and wellness as the primary driver of a design decision, you can make a better decision about how to interact with that sustainability marketplace. It’s not another standard or rating system but an opportunity to clarify through all of that and essentially provide some decision opportunities for designers and ultimately for the consumer. gb&d: It seems as though the “aging in place” movement is very near to you. How does sustainable design relate to this and perhaps even assist it? Arias: As more Americans are living into retirement age than ever before, more of our population is going to require extended care, so the conversation has shifted to defining innovative and effective solutions to enable successful aging. Demographically speaking, sustainable design is also life-altering design. But “aging in
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place” gets overlooked for the non-generational qualities of the concept, which are all about more-livable communities for us regardless of age, income, or existing health conditions. To me, design thinking is thinking in systems, and my approach to this area is to factor in the scales of the built environment—everything from interiors to buildings to communities—and then follow that user-occupance experience to the space. With this approach, there aren’t any trade-offs in selecting from the varying principles in design; instead, we have a more holistic understanding of the user’s experience. Successful design addresses health and wellness as a central driver for an optimal experience of the built environment. gb&d: On your blog, you raised the question, “How will technology and connected devices support the ability to live in one’s own home and community independently and comfortably regardless of age, income, or ability level?” What are your thoughts on the answer to this very big question? Arias: Well, these days it’s easy to connect, control, and monitor all the devices in your home—the lights, doors, appliances, thermostats, etc. Not only is it reassuring and cool to keep tabs on your home, but there’s all of the energy costs and savings that you can gain in the process. But for me, just because a home or a workplace is connected doesn’t mean that it’s healthier, more effective, more efficient, or more comfortable. I think that bridging the efficiency and performance components as well as the overall comfort and wellbeing components is where designers can help. They can come in and close the gap between technology and user experience to a wider range of functions such as health monitors and feedback mechanisms and integrated sensor technology. And what I mean by, “regardless of age, income, or ability level” is that when we take a look at the human experience as the nominal unit gbdmagazine.com
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for driving health and wellness in the built environment, it’s intending to connect with the different kinds of products that are offered out there and the different scales of services available.
ISABELLA NUNEZ
gb&d: I read that you’ve asked yourself what you can do to tackle the challenges presented by the growth our population is expected to hit by 2050. How is that going? Arias: You know, I’m realizing that working to improve the human condition from the perspective of health connections to the built environment is really meaningful work. And while I have no position about gb&d
population growth production—so the economics in me isn’t what compelled me to make a declaration there—I do think that preparing our people, our workforce, and our urban systems, as well as our environmental concerns, in a holistic manner will move society toward a higher quality of life. I think about my nieces and my little nephew that’s about to join the family, and I’m highly interested in ensuring that the youngest generations are able to work themselves out of complications. I think about honoring our aging community as well and understanding all of the things that they’ve learned and experienced and translating it down the
ABOVE Fernando Arias is overseeing an education and technology platform to help designers and architects make smarter design decisions about projects, materials, and building components that place occupant health and wellness first.
generation pipeline—that’s all so appealing to me. I think I’ve been doing a lot to tackle these challenges, and really, it’s less about confronting it as though I’m standing in front of the wave but rather looking at empowering folks to make the decision to stand sideways and let the wave wash over them. gb&d march–april 2015
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On the Boards Nyt Hospital Nordsjælland By Vincent Caruso
cap at a dramatically diminutive four floors—knee-level in comparison to the industry’s massive masses. At 660 beds and 24 medical departments, though, the methodically horizontal hospital is still mammoth and well beyond just sufficiently functional. Hospital operations will be performed in closer harmony with one another, accessing departments with incredible ease as the mildly spherical form of the monument will enjoy a universally accessible garden at its structural core to pass through as needed or, simply, to enjoy the integration of the healing soil of the Euro-countryside. The team of Herzog & de Meuron and Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects came onto the project via a rigorous selection process that included six other esteemed candidates. It’s a decision that pleases all parities involved from the desks of the Copenhagen regional council to the laboring physician at the edge of the hospital bed, some of whom have been meanwhile involved working as advisors in the design process. The pioneering Nyt Hospital Nordsjælland will open in 2020. gb&d
BELOW This healthcare facility will take the shape of a lucky cloverleaf and integrate organically into the natural landscape upon which it rests.
PHOTOS: HERZOG & DE MEURON
The Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing and Tate Modern art gallery in London are two international landmarks triumphantly plotted on opposing ends of the globe, both devised by cherished Switzerland-based architectural globetrotters, Herzog & de Meuron. For how far from home this fellowship of design dignitaries have planted monuments, the cozily proximate Scandinavia had yet to catch the warmth of their special touch until a recent joint project assisted by Danish heartlanders, Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects. The collaboration of interest is Nyt Hospital Nordsjælland, an acute care hospital nestled just south of Hillerød to serve as a structural ambassador to the wooded forest area that will encompass it. Bearing the good blessings of a lucky cloverleaf shape, the new hospital will shed the bind of tradition and instead vouch for a progressive operational position that integrates organically into the natural landscape upon which it rests. Resisting the prevailing medical architectural convention of vertical, skyscraping edifices, Nyt Hospital Nordsjælland will
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Material World ECOR
HOW ARE THESE MAJOR COMPANIES USING ECOR? 20th Century Fox: TV set design Google: interior design and building material in two workplace environments Whole Foods: architectural ceilings in stores Starbucks: decorative wall panels and wainscoting Proctor & Gamble: point of purchase displays Microsoft: a large conference set
One company is turning cardboard waste and other cellulose fibers into a green building material that’s caught the attention of Google, Whole Foods, and more By Amanda Koellner Stronger. Lighter. Cleaner. These adjectives could easily top the hypothetical list of words that green professionals long to describe their building materials. Throw in “greater freedom in design” and “competitive pricing,” and the term no-brainer really couldn’t be more applicable. Robert Noble, founder of Noble Environment Technologies, uses all of these descriptors when discussing his product, ECOR—a building material crafted from cardboard waste and 100% recycled material that’s durable, 100% recyclable, and completely free of toxins. His words can be quantified by the fact
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that early adopters of ECOR include Google, Microsoft, Proctor & Gamble, Whole Foods, Starbucks, 20th Century Fox, Gensler, TOMS, and the list goes on. “These industry leaders recognize the enhanced performance and disruptive nature of the material and the unique design elements not possible or economic with other materials,” Noble says. “Each partnership represents the potential of millions of dollars in recurring annual revenues.” ECOR, created in partnership with the USDA, is manufactured via a unique “waste-to-product” conversion technology, which “produces environmentally superior, design-friendly, high-performance composite materials that outperform traditional materials including wood, particleboard, fiberboard, aluminum, plastic, cardboard and other composites.” It can be made from virtually any cellulose fiber or combination of fibers, depending on the product, which speaks to the lucidity of this product, as such fibers are often found in recycled cardboard and paper, wood fibers, agricultural fibers, synthetic
fibers, and textiles (i.e., in many products and materials that we often cast aside and simply dispose of upon completion of use). So how widely will this material be used in the near future? Well, Noble currently manufactures it at the USDA’s Forest Products Lab and at its ECOR licensed plant in Europe. “But based on growing sales and additional sales operations in Turkey, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Germany, and Croatia, we’ve secured the capital from Envisage Equity and have commenced construction on our much needed expansion,” Noble says, noting that these developments will result in a 400% increase in capacity to more than 25,000,000 square-feet per year and in production by July of this year. Up to ten additional facilities could pop up in the US, and strategic partnerships will also result in product design collaborations with major manufacturers, technology license agreements to build manufacturing facilities, and joint-venture product development companies. gb&d gbdmagazine.com
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On the Spot Lisa Meier
This issue’s guest editor, vice president and general manager of UL Environment, responds to our questionnaire and reminds us that our children can be both the motivation for and drivers behind a more sustainable planet in the future.
THE PERFECT CITY WOULD HAVE
Clean air, clear water, renewable energy, green grass, and trees. THE NEXT BIG IDEA WILL COME FROM
Our children.
WASTEFUL HABBIT YOU’RE TRYING TO KICK
Insomnia.
MOST COMPELLING ARGUMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP
We only have one planet—we want it and its resources to be available to our children and our children’s children. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL PET PEEVE
Calling a meeting that concludes with the action to hold another meeting. Just make a decision. YOUR PERSONAL DEFINITION OF SUSTAINABILITY
Convservation
Understanding the effects our actions could be having on the health of our children.
THE BOLDEST IDEA IN SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
Aiming beyond just net-zero to net-positive in terms of sustainability.
BUILDING YOU WOULD SAVE IF THE WORLD WAS GOING TO END
MOST MEANINGFUL PROJECT YOU’VE COMPLETED
A CENTURY FROM NOW, HUMANITY WILL
National Geographic; my daughter can’t wait for the next month’s publication to arrive.
Not a building, but a monument—the Statue of Liberty because it’s a universal symbol of freedom and liberty and was a gift of friendship.
Collectively prioritize safe food and water to feed the masses.
WAY TO MAKE THE ENVIRONMENT A NONPARTISAN ISSUE
Start with a non-partisan approach. Together pick the topic and agree to attack it. BUILDING TREND YOU HOPE WILL NEVER GO OUT OF FASHION
Classic Architecture
SOCIAL MEDIA, HELPING OR HURTING?
Helping to spread a useful message, when the message/topic is supported with the correct facts/science and you are targeting the appropriate audience
MOST MEMORABLE MENTOR OR TEACHER
Robert Giordano for whom I worked when I first started out my career. He made you push the boundaries of what you thought was possible. FAVORITE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION
Walking.
HARSHEST CRITICISM YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED
To hold back on my enthusiasm for a given topic. It can lead a team to conclusions.
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Continued from p. 21
has acquired several companies in the past three years. Many of them were already LEED-certified, and some are going through the process now. So we certainly promote this idea that we, ourselves, have to revisit sustainability and that we’re following what we’re trying to sell and communicate. We’re also continually going through the process of revisiting our priorities. Even today, UL is going through a whole review with our most senior leaders, including our CEO, to revisit our CSR strategy and make sure that it is consistent and relevant with where we are today and in line with the best practice we promote. The space and the initiatives are always evolving, and once you feel like you’ve achieved something, you need to raise the bar again—and that’s part of our normal process. It makes you feel very confident and makes you know that when you’re talking to a customer, you’re not just telling them a story. We truly live by what we are communicating and what we’re helping our customers better understand and communicate on behalf of their own brand.
ENVIRONMENTAL COME-TO-JESUS MOMENT
TOPIC IF YOU WERE ASKED TO GIVE A TED TALK
The power of passion: follow it.
PHOTO: DARNELL WILBURN
INDUSTRY JARGON YOU WOULD BAISH
Overly complicated industry acronyms.
IN CONVERSATION with Lisa Meier
All of our initiatives to help raise awareness of bad air quality—in particular, air quality in schools, as it affects our children.
“We truly live by what we are communicating and what we’re helping our customers better understand and communicate on behalf of their own brand.”
PUBLICATION YOU HOPE WILL NEVER DIE
MOST FULFILLING HOBBY
Traveling with my family.
ONE QUESTION INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS SHOULD ALWAYS BE ASKING THEMSELVES
Have I done enough to make an impact? MOST COMMON GREEN MYTH
Green is more expensive and it probably doesn’t work as well.
CAUSE YOU’D SUPPORT IF YOU HAD A BILLION DOLLARS
Education—investing in science.
CURRENT PROJECT YOU’RE MOST EXCITED ABOUT
Supply chain transparency initiatives with some of our biggest clients
MOST IMPACTFUL EXPERIENCEIN NATURE
No lights, no cars, and silence deep in the canyons and looking up at the stars in the middle of the night—so bright you can hardly focus.
gb&d: Does UL put its offices and its spaces through the same testing that it does for other clients? And do you use products that you’ve ceritified in these workspaces as well? Meier: Yes it does, absolutely. Can we do more of it? Absolutely, and the company has recognized that. And yes, we also promote that we use or own certified products. When customers have come to us to get their products certified, we always consider those products when we’re remodeling or changing locations. In our Marietta [,Georgia] office, everything has been GREENGUARD certified and LEED-certified. We certainly promote it, but as any company can do better, we try to reach a new high. gb&d
THE THOUGHT OR IDEA THAT CENTERS YOU
What my children have to look forward to. gb&d
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Directory & Index
ADVERTISERS
# 3M Company, 120 3M.com/WindowFilm 855-612-2982 A AIA Convention 2015, 123 aia.org 800-343-4146 Alten Construction, 108 altenconstruction.com 510.234.4200 American Dryer Inc., 15 americandryer.com 800.485.7003 734.421.2400 American Society of Interior Designers, 8 asid.org 202.546.3480
Assoc. of Energy Engineers, 115 aeecenter.org 770.447.5083 B Bayer MaterialScience LLC, 120 sheffieldplastics.com 800.628.5084 C Clean Energy, 78 cleanenergytrust.org 312-980-6544 D Decca Contract, 2 612.362.0007 deccacontract.com G Globalcon, 115 globalconevent.com 770.447.5083 Green Box, 120 thechicagogreenbox.com 888.609.8984 H Holcim (US) Inc, 124 holcim.us 888-646-5246 I IFMA (International Facility Management Association), 4, 117 ifma.org 713.623.4362
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Informa Exhibitions, 121 informaexhibitions.com +44 (0)207 017 5000
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International Living Future Institute, 102 living-future.org 503.228.5533 L LIGHTFAIR International, 105 lightfair.com 404.220.2220 LiveRoof and LiveWall, 108 liveroof.com 800.847.1392 M MechoSystems, 55 mechosystems.com (718) 729-2020 MelRok, 120 melrok.com 855-MelRok1
Molly’s Suds, LLC, 120 mollyssuds.com (844) 234-SUDS
N NeoCon, 110 neocon.com 312.527.4141 P The Professionals Moving Specialist, 120 thepromove.com 773-478-1365 T Tremco, 58 tremcoinc.com 216-292-5000 W Workrite Ergonomics, 3 workriteergo.com 800.959.9675
PEOPLE & COMPANIES
# 20th Century Fox, 116 3M, 21 A Abdul-Matin, Ibrahim, 22 Alten Construction, 83 American Dryer, 16 American Manufactured Structures, 44 American Realty Advisors, 100 American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE), 45 Arch11, 86 Arias, Fernando, 112 B Benjamin, David, 21 Benyus, Janine, 22 Berry, Rick, 98 Binatone Electronics, 13
Bjarke Ingels Group, 20 Bouldin Creek Ranch, 92 Bridgepoint Active Healthcare, 28 Browntrout, 41 BuroHappold, 87 Butterfield, Jay, 100 C Cadman Plaza East, 44 California Department of Public Health, 76 Cal-Sag Channel, 104 Capstone MicroTurbine, 91 The City of Richmond, 80 Clinton, Bill, 63 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), 64 Colorado Front Range, 86 Columbia University, 21 Cornish Cross, 41 Correia, Carlos, 71 D Darden, Tom, 57 Delos, 62 DiCaprio, Leonardo, 62 Dykhuis, Larry, 73 E Eckmann, Juergen, 87 ECOLOGO Certification, 71 ECOR, 116 Ecovative, 21 Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare, 37 England, Samantha, 109 Environmental Protection Agency, 76 Envisage Equity, 116 ExtremeAir CPC, 16 F Fedrizzi, Rick, 45 Felsen, Martin, 104 Finn Design Build, 90 Finnell, Alex, 90 First American Water, 104 First Lamp, 50 Firth, Paul, 71 Fisher, Jim 17 Forest Products Lab, 116 Freed, Eric Core, 22 Freedom Ranger, 41 Future Living unConference, 22 G Garrison Architects, 42 Gensler, 116 GO Logic, 18 Google, 116 Group Health Puyallup Medical Center, 47 Green, Daniel, 46 Greenbuild, 56 GREENGUARD Certification, 71 GREENGUARD Gold Certification, 76 Green Building Certification Institute, 63 Green Guide for Health Care, 45 Gucker-Kanter Taylor, Caitlin, 20 Guenther, Robin, 45
H Hagerman, Sam, 98 Haworth, 68 Hamilton, Chad, 80 Hamilton + Aitken Architects, 80 Hammer & Hand, 96 Haselden, 87 Heinking, Susan, 106 Herman Miller, 39, 73 Herzog & de Meuron, 114 Hoffman III, William F., 74 Holcim Foundation, 20 I IKEA, 109 Illinois Institute of Technologies College of Architecture, 104 Inovateus Solar, LLC, 109 International WELL Building Institute, 57 K Kaiser Permanante Westside Medical Center, 46 Karbank Real Estate Company, 89 L LaRusso. Dr. Nicholas, 63 Lake Wanaka, 40 LEED Gold for Schools, 83 Lentz Public Health Center, 26 Living Building Challenge, 64 LivingHomes, 56 The Living, 21 M Madison Park, 50 Make It Right, 56 Maritime Center, 80 Martinez, Mel 62 Mark Line Industries, 42 McGee, Randy, 87 Meade, E.J., 86 Meier, Lisa, 13 Mercy West Hospital & Medical Center, 32 Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, 103 Microsoft, 116 Mielke, Amy, 20 Mitchell, James, 83 Moore, Michelle, 64 Mother Nature Network, 22 Museum of Modern Art, 21 N National Park Services, 80 Naval Hospital Replacement Project at Camp Pendleton, 76 New York City Office of Emergency Management, 42 Noble Environment Technologies, 116
Noble, Robert, 116 Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Galter Pavilion, 106 Nyt Hospital Nordsjælland, 114 NYU Polytechnic, 44 O O’Neil, Dr. Mike, 68 Ostara Nutrient Recovery, 104 P Passive House, 18 Patneau, Kyle, 91 Paxton, Mike, 89 Pearl Izumi, 86 Planetree, 37 Planetree Visionary Design Network, 37 Platt, Lisa, 37 Pratt, 44 Proctor & Gamble, 116 R Red Cross Place, 44 Richmond Community Foundation, 80 RMTA, 89 Roizen, Dr. Michael, 63 Roth, Joseph, 109 The Rosie the Riveter Trust, 80 S Sanders, Sean, 40 Scallia, Paul, 61 Shore, Debra, 103 Sommers, Jeffrey, 53 South Coast Air Quality Management District of Los Angeles, 76 Square Root Architecture and Design, 53 Stewart, Jeffrey, 42 Starbucks, 116 Steady, Scott, 72 Stickney Water Reclamation Plant, 104 St. Mary’s Hospital, 48 Stodola, Nathan, 62 Sunseri. Dr. Al, 45 Sustainable Healthcare Architecture, 45 T Torrano, Harry, 83 Technicolor, 13 Texas A&M University, 107 Thieriot, Angelica, 37 TOMS, 116 Tremco, 76 U UL Environment, 13 The University of Chicago, 18 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 44 Ulrich, Roger, 107 USDA, 116 US Gren Buildling Council, 71 V Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects, 114 Vista Awards, 45 VOA Associates, Inc., 106 W Wacker-Randolph Building, 100 Walgreens Health System Pharmacy, 106 Water Pore Partnership, 20 West Contra Costa Unified School District,80 Wilson, Edward O., 106 Winters, Craig, 76 Whole Foods, 116 Woodard, Amy, 76 Y Yale School of Architecture, 20 Z ZGF Architects, 87
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