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building june/july 2010

Volume 60 Number 3

Editor

Peter Sobchak Legal Editor

Jeffrey W. Lem Contributors

Stephen Carpenter, Alam Pirani, Rhys Phillips, David G. Reiner Art Director

Andrea M. Smith Circulation Manager

Beata Olechnowicz Tel: (416) 442-5600, ext 3543 Reader Services

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Building magazine is published by BIG Magazines LP, a division of Glacier BIG Holdings Company Ltd. 12 Concord Place, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M3C 4J2 Tel: (416) 510-6780 Fax: (416) 510-5140 E-mail: info@building.ca Website: www.building.ca SUBSCRIPTION RATE: Canada: 1 year, $28.95; 2 years, $51.00; 3 years, $62.95. (including G.S.T.) U.S.: 1 year, $36.95 (U.S. funds) Elsewhere: 1 year, $43.95 (U.S. funds).

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Features 12. Exit 438-86: By-Law Reform in Toronto / Is Toronto emerging from a desert of zoning by-laws, or is it just a mirage on the horizon? By Jeffrey W. Lem and David G. Reiner 14. The Shootist / While most of us move through our day-to-day experiences without connecting to what is around us, architectural photographers lend a sense of importance to everyday life, and are able to encapsulate an unhurried moment in which the beauty of a place can shine. Ben Rahn is just such a man. By Peter Sobchak 18. Getting Back to Good / It has been a rough ride for owners of hotel real estate, but better times are ahead. By Alam Pirani

21. From Suburb to City: an Opportunity Born of Necessity / Politicians, developers and even planners have not always been prepared to commit to significantly transform suburban communities. However as two British Columbian cities show, they may be forced to by conditions such as evaporating cheap land, escalating public costs, changing demographics, and worsening transportation congestion coupled with a social evolution emphasizing quality of life over quantity of goods and an environmental sensibility. By Rhys Phillips

Departments 6 Editor’s Notes

7 Upfront

29 Infosource

30 Viewpoint

Cover: Concord Gateway, Concord Pacific Developments’ vision for a new urban precinct in Capstan Village, situated in the northern end of Richmond, B.C. Image by GBL Architects & PWL Partnership Above images courtesy of: the City of Richmond; Eugen Sakhnenko/A-Frame; Enermodal Engineering.

editor’s notes

What is the future of the edge?

When it comes to city building, nothing stays the same forever.

Things change. Except for one thing: growth. Growth drove the traditional city building model and it will drive the future model.

As we now know, for the first time in history more people live in cities than in rural areas and this is ever-increasing, which means how growth is managed will define future cities and separate the successful ones from the unsuccessful.

We also know suburban communities have existed for some time, and have enjoyed a great deal of acceptance in the 20th century. But now, their future is questionable, with many thinkers arguing that traditional suburbs are no longer sustainable in the long term. As sprawl creeps ever further, gobbling up farmland and relying solely on new infrastructure to connect them to employment and services, their sustainability comes into question. With oil and transportation costs eating up more than can be saved in exurb housing prices, the collapse of many communities seems a distinct possibility, if not inevitability.

Some planners and thinkers imagine a world in which the traditional yet unsustainable suburb disappears. But buyers seem to continue to prefer single-family homes. Suburban planners and suburban residents often have differing views of how best to plan developments — as with everything, there are always those who will push for change and those who will push for the status quo.

Both parties say they are interested in protecting the environment and maintaining long-term community sustainability, but how to achieve this is fraught with disputes on both sides.

Cities traditionally relied on three factors over the past five decades to grow: an abundance of relatively inexpensive raw land, cheap fossil fuels and easy access to the automobile. But the rise of New Urbanism has shed light on how many of the suburban planning practices currently employed cannot be sustained. With loss of farmland, wildlife habitat, and the health of a suburban population dependent on their automobile for the most basic needs, a few brave cities and towns — like Richmond and Surrey in B.C., as Rhys Phillips discusses in this issue — are trying to reverse 50 years of destructive planning.

While it’s true we are inherently suspect of anything “instant,” we’ve come to the point where we need some form of instant urbanism. We are experiencing a convergence of significant local and global factors that is rapidly making the traditional growth model obsolete. Cities need to significantly change how they manage growth if they hope to achieve sustainability in the future.

City growth isn’t slowing down, and in the coming decades we can safely expect millions of square feet of new space to be built, for everything from homes to offices, shopping malls, industrial buildings, and all the good stuff like new hospitals, libraries and museums. In fact, a recent U.S. study estimates that in 2030, around half of the buildings in which Americans live their lives will have been built after 2000 (the majority of which would be residential structures). Think about that for a second — it means that half of the built environment of 2030 doesn’t exist yet. This gives us a profound opportunity to reshape the future for the better. B

Peter Sobchak

Building welcomes your opinions.

E-mail your comments to editor@building.ca

READ Lessons from the “Bubble” Rubble / Bill Ferguson discusses nine leadership mistakes not to make as we rebuild real estate.

WATCH Retrofitting Suburbs / Ellen Dunham-Jones, associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and author of Retrofitting Suburbia, discusses how best to urbanize suburbs and increase their sustainability.

Urban Agriculture / Marina Khoury, partner and director of town planning at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company explains how to incorporate agriculture into the urban form to provide more sustainable development.

Save Our Suburbs / Tony Recsei, president of the Australian advocacy group Save Our Suburbs, explains how the group was formed to protect suburban lifestyles, and has seen increasing numbers of backers with the goal of building and planning sustainable suburban communities that will meet the needs of residents.

ATTEND CANBuild 10 Ontario Brownfields Regulatory Summit / June 22-24 / Toronto RAIC/SAA 2010 Festival of Architecture / June 23-26 / Saskatoon B+H Architects Golf Event 2010 “Going Global” / July 22 / Toronto CanGEA Geothermal Energy Conference / August 9-10 / Vancouver

Life after the back cover...

what’s on BUILDING.CA

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The criteria for the awards include leadership, contribution to the community, innovations, public/private partnership, environmental protection and enhancement, response to societal needs, and financial viability.

New office inventory changes dynamic of GTA corporate real estate market

Image courtesy of Stantec

TORONTO — In its recently published Real Estate Market Study, Newmark Knight Frank Devencore reported that vacancy rates climbed significantly in downtown Toronto’s Class “A” and Class “B” office buildings in 2009. However, the delivery of over three million square feet of new space to the downtown market over the past year-and-a-half has been the primary contributor to the increase in vacancies.

Indeed, the newly-constructed towers with the most advanced infrastructure and environmental features have been successful in attracting tenants and a The expanded Vancouver Convention Centre added one million square feet to the watersignificant amount of the sublease space from corpofront in the heart of Vancouver, and was the home of the Media Centre for the 2010 Olympic rate downsizings that came onto the market in late Winter Games.

2008 and early 2009 has been absorbed.

Vancouver Convention Centre “For tenants, escalating vacancy rates generally signal good one of ten winners for the news,” said Allan Schaffer, president / Broker of Record of ULI 2010 Awards for Excellence Devencore Realties Corporation Canada Limited, Brokerage.

BOSTON — Ten outstanding developments from the Americas “Landlords tend to become increasingly interested in securing have been selected as winners of the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) quality tenants for the longer term and tend to be more flexible Awards for Excellence: The Americas competition, announced in in leasing negotiations. However, tenants should understand Boston at the 2010 ULI Real Estate Summit at the Spring Council that vacancy rates in the Greater Toronto Area vary significantly between office districts and specific properties within Forum. The 2010 winners are (developers in parentheses): • Andares, Guadalajara, Mexico (Desarrolladora Mexicana de those districts.”

Schaffer also noted that specific older Class “A” towers that Inmuebles S.A.) • Bethel Commercial Center, Chicago, Illinois (Bethel New Life) are being vacated by tenants moving into the newer develop• Columbia Heights, Washington, DC (The Government of the ments should provide tenants interested in locating or expanding in the Downtown District with the best opportunities for District of Columbia) • Foundry Square, San Francisco, California (Wilson Meany lowest net rental rates.

“At the present time there is willingness on the part of some Sullivan) • LA Live, Los Angeles, California (AEG) landlords to restructure existing leases for quality tenants and to • Madison at 14th Apartments, Oakland, California (Affordable negotiate early ‘blend and extend’ transactions whereby rental Housing Associates) rates are averaged down as part of a longer-term lease. As the • Sundance Square, Fort Worth, Texas (Sundance Square pace of economic growth increases towards the end of this year, Management) some of these advantages may begin to disappear. As a result, • Thin Flats, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Onion Flats) tenants with leases coming up for renewal over the next 24-36 • Vancouver Convention Centre West, Vancouver, British Colum­ months should immediately begin to work with their real estate bia, (BC Pavilion Corporation) advisors to assess their future space requirements,” Schaffer said.

• The Visionaire, New York, New York (Albanese Organization & In the rest of the country, a measure of stability also seems to Starwood Capital) be returning to the corporate real estate sector. While the overall The 2010 winners were selected from more than 170 entries. vacancy rate in Canada’s major cities jumped from six per cent The Awards for Excellence program, established in 1979, is to seven per cent over the last half of 2009, this jump was based on ULI’s guiding principle of recognizing best practice entirely attributable to the new inventory that arrived on the through the awards to promote better land use and develop- market. In fact, approximately 2.2 million square feet of space ment. ULI’s Awards for Excellence recognize the full develop- was absorbed over the last six months of the year. Over the next ment process of a project, not just its architecture or design. six to 12 months the balance of power between landlords and building

june/july 2010

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tenants will depend on the dynamics of each local market, and in many cities the best opportunities for tenants will likely be found on a building by building basis.

Westpro was established in 1993 as the B.C. division of a large multi-national construction group and was subsequently acquired by its management team, headed

by Joel Nauss. Over the past five years, Westpro has successfully completed dozens of projects ranging in size up to $20 million with average annual volumes of approximately $40 million. Already, Giffels and Westpro are working together on a significant B.C. project, the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women.

Giffels Corporation expands into western Canada

TORONTO — The Ingenium Group of companies has purchased of Westpro Constructors Group Ltd. of Surrey, B.C. This acquisition will merge Westpro with Ingenium’s construction division, comprising Giffels Corporation, Giffels Infra­ structure Inc., Giffels Partnership Solutions and Design & Construction Giffels Québec Inc. The company will operate as Westpro Infrastructure Ltd. to undertake transportation and infrastructure projects and will provide management support for Giffels ongoing activities with institutional and commercial buildings in Western Canada.

RAIC welcomes new Executive Director Joel Nauss (left) president, Westpro Con­struc­­ tors Group Ltd., and Victor Smith, CEO, Ingenium Group and president of Giffels Corporation.

Canadian real estate investors cautiously optimistic about a pending market rebound

TORONTO — Although Canadian institutional and private real estate investors think the market has yet to reach its lowest point, they are cautiously optimistic that a fast recovery is on the horizon and are honing their expansion strategies, according to Colliers International’s 2010 Global Investor Sentiment Survey. Two out of three Canadian investors (65 per cent) indicated they are considering further acquisitions over the next 12 months, mirroring the global trend (64 per cent).

The global survey of more than 240 major real estate investors (including 26 large Canadian institutional property investors) with a total investment portfolio of over $300 billion, also found a strong appetite for domestic investments. The vast majority (85 per cent) of Canadian respondents who indicated acquisition plans intend to focus on the domestic market, especially in locations such as Toronto (27.8 per cent), Vancouver and Montreal (16.7 per cent each), Edmonton and Calgary (14.8 per cent and 11.1 per cent respectively). The lack of appetite for foreign investments is also reflected globally with eight out of ten respondents having no off-shore portfolio or intentions to invest overseas.

“On a risk adjusted basis, Canadian investors still see Canada as a preferred investment destination that offers a higher return on investment compared to the U.S., in part because of the turmoil that still lingers south of the border,” says Milton Lamb, Chair, National Investment Team, with Colliers International in Canada. “Additional reasons respondents gave for focusing on domestic investments range from the quality of assets to diversification of income stream, availability of capital or better valuation matching income.”

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OTTAWA — The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) has announced that Jim McKee has been named Executive Director, effective July 19. McKee comes to the Institute with experience heading the Coalition for Cultural Diversity (CCD) where

The survey also reveals that Canadian investors are not only looking for buying opportunities, but also looking to divest underperforming or non-core assets (54 per cent). At the same time another 42 per cent of investors are playing the waiting game, holding firm on any asset selling plans to avoid sale at the bottom of the cycle. Respondents predict that the price-expectation gap between buyers and sellers, which has brought deal flow to a near standstill, will narrow closer to the end of the year. The consensus among investors surveyed is that the market will resume to normalcy of transaction stream starting in Q3’10 through to Q2’11.

Milton Lamb adds “If there is a lesson to be learned from this recent recession it would be about the importance of proper assessment of investment opportunities in the context of market cycles. The commercial real estate market is not a stock market where one can enter and exit so easily, which means proper research and analysis become more important than ever.”

Additional Findings and Highlights • Nearly three out of four (73 per cent) Canadian investors feel that access to capital became easier over the past year and 54 per cent say the movement toward easier access to debt to continue.

Additionally and in-line with the BoC recent announcement, 58 per cent of respondents believe the cost of borrowing will climb over the next 12 months.

• Investors expect to see rents continue to decline and hit bottom at the beginning of 2011. This places tenants whose leases are set to expire this year in a better position when negotiating with their property owners.

• 50 per cent of Canadian respondents, most of them institutional investors, are willing to pay a premium for sustainable buildings, compared to only 30 per cent of U.S. investors.

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he was responsible for all aspects of its operations, including governance, strategic planning, budgeting and fundraising, policy development, government relations, communications, and staffing.

With the CCD he was instrumental in mobilizing cultural organizations in Canada and around the world to secure widespread political support for an international treaty affirming the right of countries to apply cultural policies.

The treaty — the UNESCO Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions — entered into force in 2007 and to date has been ratified by 110 countries. It is now being implemented. It was the result of a two-pronged strategy — a domestic government relations program in Canada and an international advocacy campaign abroad. A common position for the treaty was established through extensive international missions, in which he played a lead role building a network of coalitions representing more than 600 cultural organizations from 42 countries.

McKee served as CCD’s official representative at international meetings and conferences: at UNESCO, annual meetings of the International Network on Cultural Policy culture ministers’ network, and in meetings with the Prime Minister of Canada, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, the Minister of Culture and Communications of Quebec, and the Minister of Culture of Ontario.

“Jim McKee’s management experience with Canadian and international organizations which are focused on the cultural and creative agenda, and his close working relationship with Canadian public sectors are expected to help advance the mandate of Architecture Canada | RAIC,” said Randy Dhar, FRAIC, RAIC President.

McKee begins his tenure in July and will be on hand to meet members at the RAIC — SAA Festival of Architecture being held from June 23-26, 2010 in Saskatoon. He replaces Jon Hobbs, FRAIC who is retiring at the end of June after 14 years with the RAIC.

U of T Engineering professor new Chair in concrete durability and sustainability

OTTAWA — The Cement Association of Canada has announced that the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada / Cement Association of Canada Industrial Research Chair in Concrete Durability and Sustainability was awarded to Dr. Doug Hooton, one of the top researchers in cement and concrete sustainability and durability.

The Chair’s funding is valued at $1.8 million over five years with contributions from the Cement Association of Canada, NSERC, University of Toronto, Holcim Canada and Whitemud Resources. This funded chair will create a new tenuretrack faculty position and will provide funding for graduate student and research associate positions.

The goal of the Research Chair is to provide innovative and effective approaches to improve the environmental sustainability and durability of concrete, as well as providing leadership in development of specifications and industry standards. Enhanc-

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ing the durability of concrete, while incorporating recycled local materials, improves the sustainability of buildings and infrastructure. The Chair will help focus research and teaching in an area that is critical to making informed choices in infrastructure renewal and addressing the environmental and energy sustainability challenges facing the cement, concrete and construction industries.

“The Canadian cement and concrete industries will greatly benefit from Doug Hooton’s research goal to produce stronger and more sustainable concrete using innovative new materials that are more durable and environmentally-friendly”, said Michael McSweeney, president and CEO of the Cement Association of Canada.

EnerQuality launches LEEP and TAP

TORONTO — EnerQuality Corporation, which provides certi­ fication, training and consultation in energy-efficient housing to the Ontario residential construction industry, has launched the Local Energy Efficiency Partnerships (LEEP) in four Ontario regions and Technology Adop­tion Pilot (TAP).

The LEEP technology review process and the installation of technologies in TAP Discovery homes, aims to accelerate the adoption of builder-selected, energy-efficient technologies and best practices across Ontario. It addresses the issue of EnerQuality Corporation presibuilders who, swamped with infordent Corey McBurney. mation about new products, must decide which is the most market ready, offer the greatest value and fit best into the housing development system.

“New technologies and practices are expected to be a major part of a future in which homes consume much less energy. But for that to happen, we must find ways for those technologies to enter the marketplace more smoothly,” said EnerQuality president Corey McBurney. “LEEP offers an approach for builders to work together to review and select technologies while TAP demonstration homes help builders install the best energysaving technologies for their customers. The partnership will result in increased knowledge and capacity that can be shared with other home builders.”

The four participating Ontario home building associations are BILD — GTA, London, Sudbury and Hamilton-Halton and Niagara (who have partnered for this initiative). This will lead to the building of 40 demonstration homes over the next two years, in these four regions.

“Here’s how it works. Through a series of facilitated meetings, using well-organized and credible technology information, we start to cull a broad spectrum of technologies down to a few that

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we build into our homes. The process gives us confidence in technologies that we can integrate into our mainstream production housing rather than ones that will only be offered as upgrades,” said Stephen Dupuis, president of the Greater Toronto Area Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD).

The LEEP process is not untested. Natural Resources Canada’s CanmetENERGY, which has a long history of providing energy solutions in the housing sector, including facilitating technology to market activities through testing, energy modeling, and education, recognized the need for such a process and piloted it four years ago in partnership with the City of London, its HBA, and local building leaders. The successful pilot has shaped the LEEP structure, and the London HBA will participate again in the new LEEP and TAP initiatives.

EnerQuality and its consultants will facilitate the local LEEP processes and TAP demonstration homes, building on their successful facilitation on Energy Star Homes and Building Canada in Ontario. CanmetENERGY, as the LEEP technical authority, will provide a single point source of credible information about leading-edge energy efficient technologies, further refined and organized by class of product and decision structure.

Funding for this LEEP and TAP initiative has been provided

by Natural Resources Canada’s CanmetENERGY, the Ontario Power Authority, Enbridge, and Union Gas.

Halsall and RFR win foot bridge design competition

CALGARY — Halsall Associates Limited together with French firm RFR have won the conceptual design competition for the new St. Patrick’s footbridge in Calgary. “We are pleased to become part of the East Village community,” said John Ford, a lead engineer with Halsall Associates Limited in Calgary. “We wanted the structure to blend in with the aesthetics of the area yet embody functionality for the surrounding community.”

As part of an effort to develop the East Village into a dynamic community that integrates into the downtown core, the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) commissioned the international contest in September 2009. From 33 initial submissions the CMLC judged both architectural and engineering components of each submission, and three finalists were chosen

to participate in a public presentation and were subject to the opinions of not only the CMLC, but of interested Calgarians.

The pedestrian bridge is 170 meters in length and is split into three arches of 50, 30 and 90 meters. The bridge will connect St. Patrick’s Island to the East Village to the south and to the Bow River path system to the north, and may feature animated lighting triggered by motion. The arches were particularly remarkable to Calgarians as some saw them mimic a stone skipping across the river while others saw rolling hills or a Chinook arch in the bridge’s profile.

Got an exciting new project?

Do you want our readers to know about it?

Send information about your new or interesting project to Peter Sobchak, Editor, psobchak@building.ca and we’ll consider including it in an upcoming issue.

Oops…

In the article entitled “Green Building Insulation” in the April-May 2010 issue, it states that “ccSPF… shows a design R value 6.2… according to the standard ASTM C518.” This is incorrect as the Canadian Standard for ccSPF states that the R value must be tested in accordance with the CAN/ULC S770 which provides the LTTR or long term thermal resistance. ccSPF with the new zero ODS blowing agent yields an R value of 5.20 to 5.80 per inch when tested in accordance to the LTTR method. It should also be noted that the R value should be represented along with the density of the foam it was tested with.

Although the primary assertion — that ccSPF is ideal for green building insulation through its thermal protection and energy performance — is accurate, information regarding R value standards relates to the U.S. market and not Canada. We regret the error, and thank Michael Pace of Toronto-based Building Resource Inc. for bringing it to our attention.

To read more about R values of ccSPF in Canada visit www.building.ca

building

june/july 2010

11

legal

BY JEFFREY W. LEM AND DAVID G. REINER

Exit 438-86: By-Law Reform in Toronto Is Toronto emerging from a desert of zoning by-laws, or is it just a mirage on the horizon?

Thinkstockphotos.com

Even “hardcore” real estate practitioners forget just how recent zoning by-laws are. Juxtaposed against the millennia-old heritage of many tenets of real property law, the introduction of municipal zoning by-laws is a comparatively new phenomenon.

In Ontario, the passage of the then-new Planning Act in 1946 paved the way for modern comprehensive zoning by-laws in this province, with the then Township of Etobicoke entering the record books as Ontario’s first “planned community” with the passage of its first zoning by-law and official plan in 1949.

North York and former City of Toronto soon followed suit with their own comprehensive zoning by-laws in 1952, and York, East York and Scarborough followed thereafter with theirs by the end of the late 1950’s.

Of course, most builders in the Greater Toronto Area are generally quite familiar with the ubiquitous City of Toronto By-law 438-86, Toronto’s general comprehensive zoning by-law which, in its own terms, is designed “to regulate the use of land and the erection, use, bulk, height, spacing of and other matters relating to buildings and structures and to prohibit certain uses of lands and the erection and use of certain buildings and structures in various areas of the City of Toronto.”

Although proclaimed as the City of Toronto’s “comprehensive” zoning by-law, the same builders who are familiar with By-law 438-86 are also all too familiar with how genuinely piecemeal and less-than-comprehensive By-law 438-86 really is. 438-86 is in fact only one of over 40 such “comprehensive” zoning by-laws that still affect various parts of the City of Toronto. Many of these “local” comprehensive zoning by-laws are really just carry-overs from the books of the municipalities that amalgamated to form the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto in 1998 (i.e. Etobicoke, York, East York, North York,

Toronto and Scarborough, collectively referred to in this article as the “Boroughs” even though all but East York had graduated from “borough” status to full city status long before amalgamating).

According to the Overview Presentation of the new comprehensive zoning by-law released in November of 2009 by Toronto City Planning (the “Overview Presentation”), the patchwork of applicable zoning by-laws was actually more than just lingering legacy by-laws from the Boroughs. In fact, even when the Boroughs were issuing their own comprehensive zoning by-laws, there were still pockets of the City and the Boroughs that, through historical happenstance, were still governed by local “neighbourhood” zoning by-laws (e.g. Leaside, Mimico and New Toronto), and many of these local neighbourhood zoning by-laws survived amalgamation and are still applicable to this day.

To the welcome relief of many, Toronto is on the verge of seeing its way out of the zoning desert, with the pending introduction of its first major comprehensive zoning overhaul as an amalgamated city. Planning for the new zoning by-law began in earnest at about this time last year, when the City of Toronto first officially announced its intention to harmonize these competing comprehensive zoning by-laws. After numerous internal staff reports and presentations and eight public “open house” presentations, the latest revised draft of this new zoning by-law, widely considered to be the penultimate draft version, was released on May 27, 2010. As of the writing of this column, the text of the new by-law and accompanying zoning maps are physically available for public review at the City of Toronto’s clerk’s offices in the Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough Civic Centres and at City Hall as well as online at the City of Toronto’s website (http://www.toronto.ca/zoning).

Jeffrey W. Lem, B.Comm. (U of T), LL.B. (Osgoode), LL.M. (Osgoode), practises in the areas of commercial real estate and finance with the law firm of Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, and has been called to the bar in Ontario, England and Wales. He is an executive member of the Real Property Section of the Ontario Bar Association and is editor-in-chief of the Real Property Reports, published

by Carswell Thomson Professional Publishing.

David G. Reiner, B.Comm. (Concordia), LL.B. (Osgoode) is an associate practising in the area of commercial real estate at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP and is called to the Bar in Ontario.

This article provides general information only and is not intended to provide specific legal advice.

Readers should not act or rely on information in this article without seeking specific legal advice on their particular fact situations.

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Visualizing your projects for over 15 years.

Paraphrasing the Overview Presentation, the new zoning by-law was drafted using a “staff-based approach,” with the view to preserving the true intent of all of the existing by-laws, while at the same time harmonizing the terms and language used therein and conforming all existing uses with those dictated by the latest Official Plan. The new zoning by-law also introduces thoroughly modern parking and loading standards throughout the City and will curb what had been cases of inconsistent application, interpretation and enforcement of some City regulations by converting frequently applied regulations into fixed provisions of the new draft zoning by-law based on the then current “best practices” relating to such regulations.

While the overall impact of this legislative reform seems more evolutionary than revolutionary, with the consistent underlying theme of harmonization and consolidation throughout, there are some new provisions that go beyond harmonization or standardization. For instance, the height of homes will now be measured to the true top of the roof (rather than the arguably unintuitive mid-point of the roof, as is currently permitted under By-law 438-86), but with a new higher standard of 10 metres for the maximum height of homes. Likewise, there will be new formulas for the calculation of front, rear and side yard setbacks, and there will be an outright city-wide ban on reverse-sloping driveways and below grade house garages.

Even the logistics of by-law maintenance and availment will be altered by this new zoning by-law. Although periodic consolidations of By-law 438-86 have been available electronically for some time, the new zoning by-law will be housed electronically and available online and current on the internet from the get-go. This will increase ease of access, improve customer service, and allow up-to-date content (currently anticipated to be in “real time” as of the very latest Council meetings).

The City of Toronto is betting that, one truly comprehensive zoning by-law, using one universally common set of terms, will eventually lead to significantly clearer interpretation and more consistent results for all Torontonians.

Of course, the accumulated wisdom of practitioners familiar with the soon to be superseded By-law 438-86 (or, for that matter, any of the other forty-plus comprehensive zoning by-laws currently still on the books) is not yet obsolete. The new zoning by-law will include a number of provisions that “grandfather” existing non-compliant properties. Also, in cases where a property continues a use that is currently lawful under By-law 438-86 (or one of the other existing zoning by-laws) but that will not be permitted under the new zoning by-law, the doctrine of legal non-conforming use will still apply, and there is nothing in the draft new zoning by-law that seems intended to curtail legal non-conforming uses.

As we go to press one final meeting of the Planning and Growth Management Committee is scheduled for June 16, 2010 to discuss amendments to the new draft zoning by-law before it goes to Council. Toronto, your brave new zoning world awaits. B

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Bryan Versteeg Studios Inc. info@bryanversteeg.com (403) 852-1785 www.bryanversteeg.com

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THE

SH OTIST While most of us move through our day-to-day experiences without connecting to what is around us, architectural photographers lend a sense of importance to everyday life, and are able to encapsulate an unhurried moment in which we can appreciate the beauty of a place. Ben Rahn is just such a man.

Photo by Eugen Sakhnenko/A-Frame

By Peter Sobchak Damn, it’s early. Four empty venti Starbucks coffee cups are scattered at our feet and the sun hasn’t even fully risen, but this is the way Ben Rahn likes it. We’re standing on the roof of a building in downtown Toronto, staring north across the street at the nearly completed 130 Bloor Street West mixed-use condo, where Rahn has his photography equipment set up to maximize the light. “Early morning light is the best, especially for buildings with a south-face exposure,” says Rahn, one of the elite few professional architectural photographers in the city. He has shot between five to six hundred buildings over his career, many of building

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Rahn now splits his time between studios in Toronto and which have titivated the pages and covers of just about every major design and shelter magazine in both Canada and the New York City to meet the needs of his clients, which consist United States (expect 130 Bloor to be appearing in them soon). mainly of architects and interior designers who need to do more Rahn didn’t get to where he is now by shooting pretty than just photographically document and catalogue a building. pictures of flowers or babies. Had his education taken a Architects want to show off their creations to both prospective different turn he may have ended up designing this very clients and the public, and they want it to look its best. This is building. While working on a BFA in photography at Con­­ exactly what Rahn wants too, saying simply, “I try to make cordia University in Montreal, where he was greatly influ- buildings look better than they are.” enced by the work of the Düsseldorf school of photographers While every building is different, and the conditions and including Bernd and Hilla Becher, Rahn also took archi­ requirements needed to shoot it fluctuate, the main constants tecture and design electives and was con­­sider­­ing architecture school. “In my fourth year, one of my instructors sug­g ested I might be interested in architectural photography, which I hadn’t realized was a job,” he says.

Rahn might not have known he could make a living at it, but he started even before university.

Growing up in Bur­ling­ton, a suburb of Tor­onto, he was fascinated by how the pieces of a city look and interact with each other.

“We could see the Stelco plant across Ham­i lton Har­­bour and I’d often look at the Hamilton skyline at night lit by the flames of the burning off-gases of the steel mills,” he recalls. “My first photographic attempts Street-level photography of 130 Bloor Street West — owned by KingSett Capital, in­volved photographing designed by Quadrangle Architects Ltd. and built by PCL Constructors Canada Inc. the Hamilton skyline at — before (left) and after (right) professional touch up by Ben Rahn. night.”

After university, he moved to Toronto to take more math and science courses are light and movement. Back on the roof across from 130 before applying to architecture school. “At the same time I Bloor, Rahn and his assistant pack up the medium-format started assisting architectural photographers like Steven Evans, Silvestri view camera (the primary weapon in an architectural Robert Burley, and Jeff Goldberg and just fell in love with the photographer’s arsenal) and Leaf digital back, Velbon tripod, work.” But his first paying photography gig nearly earned him Rodenstock lenses and MacBook laptop, and we head down to a criminal record. “While at school I answered an ad to photo- street level. “Determining the best points of view and best sun graph a band. I took them to this incredibly atmospheric aban- angles is the real work of an architectural photographer,” says doned hotel I had found. While I was setting up, one of them Rahn as we walk. Other photographers can use a studio to decided to start throwing bricks out the window, resulting in manipulate light and camera position to best portray the the arrival of the police with guns drawn. It was my first profes- subject. But when working outdoors with subjects of monusional gig, my first time being arrested and my first time inside mental scale, virtually all controls, except for choice of camera a jail cell all in one,” recalls Rahn. “The cops let me go once position and time of day, are eliminated. Our position change they realized that I wasn’t with the band as I was the only is one of 12 “views,” or locations, Rahn typically shoots from person without eyeliner.” per visit, taking five to six shots per view.

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The number of visits varies greatly, depending on the size and complexity of the building. In some cases one long day is enough but often he’ll go back two or three times either because of weather or because there are a number of shots that need to happen at the same time and he can’t get to them all in one day. This is especially true of dusk shots, since the shooting window is about 15 minutes.

“If all goes well I can do about 12 good views of a building in a day, which starts at dawn and finishes at dusk,” says Rahn.

There is no set number of visits Rahn makes to a site, especially if weather is a factor, but before he starts shooting he typically takes a tour with the architect at least once, gathering scout shots with a Canon 5D DSLR that he takes back to his office to examine. “The site tour gives me an initial sense and I usually know the obvious views afterwards,” he says. “However, often the best views are the unexpected ones that I see after I’ve looked at a building for awhile and have already captured the more obvious views. And if I happen to get unexpectedly dramatic weather, lighting, or site conditions it can change the way I portray a building.”

A general rule of thumb, according to Gerry Kopelow in his book “How To Photograph Buildings And Interiors” says that coarse-skinned buildings (wood, brick, cement, stucco) are best highlighted by steeply angled, direct sunlight, while smooth-skinned buildings (glass, metal, tile) are enhanced by interesting reflected light, such as that from an unusual sunrise, sunset, or cloud formation.

Aside from the predictable progression of the sun’s arc through the sky, natural light is capricious, and patience is an asset in this work. The technique of finding the right angles is, as Kopelow puts it “a Zen-like process of observation and surrender — surrender to both the workings of nature and the not-soinvisible hand of the architect who fashioned the building.” Not surprisingly, the 40-year-old Rahn exudes this air in his quiet, measured speech, his mop of hair and boyish snaggletooth grin,

Within Rahn’s vast portfolio are buildings such as (top) Brooklyn Museum by Polshek Partnership Architects, (middle) University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy by Hariri Pontarini Architects, and (above) East Aurora residence by Bushman Dreyfus Architects.

which somehow evoke the quality of a Buddhist bhikkhu.

This Zen-like quality also helps Rahn work closely with incredibly demanding clients throughout the entire photographic process, from planning a shoot, through post-production and beyond.

An architect is like a proud parent: their building is their child, and obviously they think, as every parent does, that their child is the most beautiful one out there. And that means sometimes Rahn has to call the shots. “My rule is I don’t shoot before [the building] is finished,” he says. “If there is a piece of drywall that has just been roughed in, or light fixtures that aren’t installed, for example, the shots will look terrible. Architects need to know I can’t make a construction site look pretty.”

Because he so often does his job in public, Rahn has met many curious strangers. “Last summer while shooting on Yonge Street in Toronto, my assistant and I had to physically battle an irate substance abuser who took offense to us being on his ‘turf ’ and started trying to kick my rather expensive equipment,” he recalls. “I also recently photographed a brokerage office and while tidying their trading desks we came across piles of disintegrated stress balls. Under­ standable in light of the economy over the last couple of years, but I didn’t know people actually squeezed those things into tiny pieces.”

How do we judge the effectiveness of a photograph in capturing the essence of a place? Clearly it is hard to define, as it is both visual and visceral. Rhythm, meaning and harmony are important, but sometimes a photograph can convey more about a place than you could see by actually being there, which certainly helps an architect’s cause. Rahn draws a great deal of satisfaction from his clients winning awards, such as prizes from ARIDO, OAA, the Governor General and many others. “It’s really great to see the people I work with use my images to help advance their careers,” he says, adding “and I benefit from getting to shoot more interesting projects as they get more interesting commissions.” B building

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Getting back to

GOOD

It has been a rough ride for owners of hotel real estate, but better times are ahead.

By Alam Pirani Hotel real estate went through another turbulent year in 2009 with the level of hotel transaction volume down 61 per cent year-over-year and by 91 per cent since the market peak in 2007. Reflective of the challenges hotel owners faced, the multitude of uncontrollable pressures in the macro-economy and the retreat of the lending community, the year ended with thin levels of trading. Transaction volume totalled approximately $414 million and was comprised of 74 hotels sold yielding an average price per room of $65,500.

Despite the slide in volume, not all is bad. While the average per room price dropped considerably, lender-driven and foreclosure sales did not transpire into a significant part of the transaction activity, which in turn, helped to shelter investors from colossal devaluations and a “fire-sale” loss of assets.

Particularly difficult, however, was agreeing on the “market value” of hotel assets, with sellers unwilling to value their properties on depressed income. As well-capitalized buyers sought bargain pricing, given the apparent instability in the marketplace and lack of available credit, the bid-ask spreads widened and sparse trading resulted. Only a small number of full-service hotels traded and just 14 hotels transacted over the $10 million threshold, although these accounted for 52 per cent of the year’s transaction volume.

As a class of commercial real estate that is susceptible to volatility in its top-line fundamentals, hotels saw many investors caught off-guard during the downturn that originated in late 2008. Accustomed to healthy returns in the good times, hotel owners faced the combined effects of down trending occupancy and rates that on a national basis led to Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) falling 12 per cent (PKF Consulting). Nearly every major downtown market suffered significant RevPAR declines and resource dependent markets reeled from RevPAR erosion of, in some cases, over 30 per cent. As owners and

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operators reacted by expense tightening, the fixed nature of many costs amplified by poor top-line performance, translated into bottom-lines on par with 2003, when the industry was devastated by SARS, natural disasters in western Canada, power outages in Ontario and tense political relations with the U.S. on the backdrop of the Iraq War. The travel industry was also bruised by several uncontrollable factors in 2009. Reduced corporate travel budgets, global health scares, new government regulations and increased airline security defined what many economists described as the worst global economic environment since the Great Depression.

Yet the Canadian hotel investment market faired relatively well versus other world markets, notably the U.S. A product of Canada’s conservative lending system, loan amounts, in most instances, were never out of control and this spared the industry from the depth of foreclosures experienced in other countries.

2009 HOTEL INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS A Year of Reaction and Strategy: As the economy turned south, investors scrambled As in a game of chess, protecting one’s position was the order of the year. Continuing from 2008, the ever changing macro-environment brought tremendous uncertainty, leaving owners to react to tumbling performance and adapt to new economic realities.

Liquidity checked out; re-capitalization ensued: No one was left unscathed from the credit crunch The abundance of debt in the market in years prior reversed course and was generally unavailable to the hotel sector. Those in a particularly tight squeeze were either digesting recently acquired hotels, in a re-financing situation or developing hotels that required financing.

cially in major downtown markets and was exacerbated by the hotel market’s utilization of third-party discount and “name your own price” opaque distribution channels. With market-wide discounting doing very little to drive demand, owners faced decreased profitability as a result.

Cut to the bone: Owners and managers slashed expenses to near fixed-cost levels Whether voluntarily or forced by restricting cash flows, a great deal of cost cutting was exhibited across all product classes nationwide. Line by line costs were trimmed, supplier contracts re-negotiated and creative cost sharing solutions were implemented to shore up profitability.

No Windfall of Distress: The largest surprise, and upset to buyers While the market expected deals, “fire sales” never transpired into any meaningful part of transaction activity. Canadian hotel owners were comparatively better capitalized this time than previous downturns, especially compared to many U.S. investors.

Moreover, in situations of distress, lenders recognized that “blow outs” would do them little good. Instead, they cooperatively worked out loans and only a handful of hotels faced foreclosure or forced-sale situations.

Seller-Buyer Bid-Ask Gap Remained Wide: Sellers were reluctant to rationalize new valuations Owners who bought at the height of the market put aside the dismal 2009 performance and set value expectations based on 2007 income levels, while buyers, understanding 2009 operations were atypical, still priced on current earnings and were cautious of overpaying. This resulted in a large bid-ask gap, which contributed to a stalling of the transaction market.

More Emphasis on Price per Room: Capitalization rates became irrelevant as incomes sank Valuating a hotel of any type was difficult, if not impossible to peg, as net income failed to represent the reality of a “stabilized” year. This led to properties trading largely on a price per room metric supported by comparable trades, instead of the more traditional approach of applying capitalization rates to current income.

2009 TRANSACTION ANALYSIS The generally illiquid real estate market in 2009 led to just 74 hotels trading, 18 fewer than the year prior. Two-thirds of these deals were limited-service hotels that represented about half of total volume for the year that averaged $4 million per transaction.

There were no strategic acquisitions during the year. Coming off years of headline acquisitions, new market dynamics shifted the investment “sweet spot” to hotels averaging around 80 rooms with limited amenities that are easier to manage, contain costs and most importantly today, finance. Total transaction volume in 2009 was $414 million, some 61 per cent below 2008 levels ($1.1 billion) and 91 per cent off the record highs reached in 2007 ($4.6 billion). Private investors led the charge in the hotel investment market comprising 60 per cent of total volume, followed

by Real Estate Companies (14 per cent) and Hotel Investment Companies (13 per cent). The balance of transaction volume was comprised of Institutions (seven per cent) Public Companies (two per cent), REITs (two per cent) and other (two per cent).

The highest priced transaction completed last year was the Hilton Garden Inn & Ajax Convention Centre located in suburban Toronto, which was acquired by a regional Hotel Investment Company for $24 million, with $17 million attributed to the hotel portion ($128,000 per room), $6 million for the adjoining convention centre and $1 million for excess land. This was

Redevelopment & Alternate Use: Hotels — not always the highest and best use Assets at the end of their life cycle or suitable for demolition to make way for other uses were apparent throughout the year and in retrospect provided creative liquidity to hotel owners seeking to exit their positions. While some assets were acquired as a significant repositioning opportunity, others were earmarked for demolition to allow for residential condominiums (notably in the Greater Toronto Area) or conversion to student residences.

Room Rate Under-Cutting Hurt the Bottom Line: Price wars and third-party websites damaged rate integrity Deep discounting occurred in most areas of the country, espebuilding

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cities, which saw most of the trading in 2009. Of interest to investors will be relatively new select-service hotels or properties with limited amenities that have upside potential through repositioning.

followed by a number of trades over the $10 million level with purchasers attracted to value-add opportunities through redevelopment or a significant refurbishment programs. The largest included the Hotel Montréal Airport (formerly the Hilton Montréal Airport and now the Wyndham Montréal Airport), trading at $20 million ($41,200 per room) and the Travelodge Toronto Downtown, which was acquired for $21.9 million ($249,000 per key, although was purchased for land value), and has since been demolished in favour of residential condominiums.

Acquisition opportunities requiring either heavy investment or demolition to attain the property’s highest and best use comprised about 30 per cent of the year’s total transaction activity.

Other significant transactions included the Four Points by Sheraton Montréal Centre-Ville ($18.8 million or $95,700 per room), sold to McGill University for conversion to student residences; Wingate by Wyndham Calgary ($16.5 million or $160,200 per room), selling to a private investor; and Days Hotel & Conference Centre Toronto Airport East ($12.0 million or $60,300 per room), which includes three acres of excess land.

Only one newly built hotel with no operating history sold, the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Courtenay - Comox Valley, British Columbia ($11.8 million or $129,400 per room), which opened in March 2009 and sold in September.

2010 OUTLOOK

Great Buying Opportunity: Those ready to capitalize will act After sitting on the sidelines, investors are primed to re-enter the hotel transaction market in 2010. With well priced assets that present a strategic entry point, those seeking to build their portfolios for the long-term will be active. By year’s end, credit should be relatively easier to access (there has already been improvement in 2010) and the market will be closer to “normalized operations”.

Transaction Market to Rise: Investors generally realize there is no way but up The market hit its cyclical trough in 2009. As last year will be treated as a base-year, investors will fuel the transaction market with trading that could potentially increase in 2010 by 25 per cent to 40 per cent from 2009 levels. Strategic acquisitions may occur as single deals over the next couple of years, but are not expected to return to 2007 levels anytime soon.

Buyer, seller groups to shift: New buyer profiles on the horizon Understanding the strategic nature of purchasing hotel real estate at this point of the cycle will appeal to High Net-Worth Individuals, REITs, Investment Funds and Hotel Investment Companies seeking strong long-term returns. Private Investors will continue to represent a sizeable portion of the activity, largely as a result of the profile of assets available and their capacity to fund acquisitions.

Valuations Will Improve: Revenue growth will boost hotel values Despite the declines of hotel real estate last year, valuations will gradually rise as demand for accommodation resumes and hoteliers realize bottom-line gains from cost containment and improved top-line fundamentals.

Lenders to Re-evaluate Their Positions: Patient lenders may opt to force the sale of assets Lenders that have been endlessly “working out” loans with modifications and new terms may — especially in situations where a sale can generate enough proceeds to cover debt or mitigate liability or future losses by the lender — bring the asset to market to exit their positions. Lender-driven sales, although not necessarily deemed distressed sales, are not estimated to comprise a significant portion of transaction volume.

Cap Rates to Regain Relevance: Return to cap rate based valuations, although price per room to remain an important barometer As net income levels for hotel properties begin to stabilize to pre-2009 levels, more weight will shift to the capitalization of income valuation methodology. Although assessing comparable trades and price per room values is common today, cap rate valuations will form an important element in assessing values as forecasting income becomes more transparent.

Operational Growth on the Horizon: No one is expecting 2010 to be stellar, but 2011 and beyond looks promising Aside from citywide or regional events and government initiatives, there is not much evidence to support strong growth in 2010 (PKF is forecasting modest RevPAR advances of four per cent nationally). As the demand for lodging typically lags the overall economy by about six months, expectations are that it will be 2011 before solid gains materialize.

B Alam Pirani is Executive Managing Director with Colliers International Hotels

Select Service and Limited Service Assets in Strong Demand: Deals to range between $5 to $15 million Investors will continue to favour strong locations that provide liquidity such as urban locations or surrounding suburbs of large

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and has assisted in the sale of over 250 hotels and debt placement valued in excess of $4.6 billion across Canada and specific markets in Latin America and the Caribbean. To read the entire 2010 Canadian Hotel Investment Report by Colliers International Hotels, visit www.building.ca or www.colliershotels.com

FROM SUBURB TO CITY:

AN OPPORTUNITY BORN OF NECESSITY

By Rhys Phillips An article entitled “transforming suburbia” runs the risk of suggesting a known and relatively constant urban configuration is either in the process of, or more proscriptively should be, changing. In 2006, The Globe and Mail reported that “the suburbs have undergone sweeping change and bear little resemblance to the enduring Leave It to Beaver stereotype.” In addition to a radical diversification of the suburban population such that it increasingly mirrors that of surviving urban centres, “many have downtown cores, thousands of jobs and even high-rise condominiums.” In fact, what we broadly call suburbia has been in a constant state of transformation since the post-war double diaspora out of both city centres and rural villages radically transformed urban life. The archetype configuration of post-war residential suburbia is still being reproduced every day, albeit with densities now rivalling city neighbourhoods. But this continual suburban growth, now referred to simply as “sprawl” by planning professionals, politicians and critics (if not the development industry) has been significantly transformed by the intrusion of changing models for retail services and employment.

How the continually expanding yet frequently changing form of urban sprawl impacts a region’s viability is one side of the current urban planning debate. The other side are the implications for how we organize our public and private lives within this form or its alternatives. In the same year the Globe redefined suburbia, Robert Beauregard suggested in When America Became Suburban that the post-war suburban revolution was about more than just built form. It was about institutionalizing a sociopolitical configuration centred on an individualized “way of life” that differed radically from that of the more integrated life of the city. Retrofitting suburbia, therefore, is about social as well as built form change.

A short history of suburbia Simon O’Byrne, managing principle and practice leader for Urban Planning at Stantec Inc. in Edmonton, points out that many prewar suburban developments still adhered to the urban grid form

and were organized along emerging public transit lines, such as the linear villages still discernable along long-gone tram lines. While these areas are candidates for retrofitting, he argues, the street configuration of the post-war suburban model creates enormous problems. The core planning elements for the suburban explosion from the 1950s through to the end of the century created a complex form difficult to remodel.

In 1998, Ken Snyder and Lori Bird defined sprawl by three distinguishing characteristics that have remained relatively constant over the last 50 years. First, residential densities below 12 people per acre has meant the rate of land use has exceeded the rate of population growth; second, there has been rigid compartmentalization with homes segregated from commercial and industrial activities; and third, urban form has been defined by branching street forms and cul de sacs that make “connectivity” problematic, public transit prohibitively expensive and walkability difficult. Professors Reid Ewing, Rolf Pendal and Don Chen add a fourth element, the lack of strong activity centres or downtowns.

The earliest suburbs up into the 1960s were primarily a residential response. Indeed, much of early freeway construction focused on access to and from the city where work and shopping remained concentrated (Building, February-March 2010). A new retail model, however, soon emerged. Small strip malls were first imbedded onto the periphery of developments in response to immediate needs and these were soon followed by enclosed regional shopping malls that accelerated the decline of urban cores. The migration of employment followed with the development of low-density greenfield business parks, suburban “back offices” and eventually large campus-style complexes. As countless writers have pointed out, the dominate characteristic of this development remained the core role of the car.

Over the last decade, two new trends have redefined the relationship between these common components of suburban sprawl. Big box retail has all but curtailed new “traditional malls” as well as precipitating the accelerated closing or retrofitting of those that already exist. By physically stretching out and separatbuilding

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Images provided by the City of Richmond

(This page) Renderings of River Green, Aspac Development Ltd.’s master planned residential community on the Richmond waterfront adjacent to the Olympic Oval, designed by architect James Cheng.

ing development along long stretches of commercial roadway, the big box model has increased greenfield conversion while making public transport more problematic and increasing the need for a car as destination shopping disappears. At the same time, residential suburbia is undergoing unprecedented densification. Row housing, stacked townhouses and even mid- to high-rise condominiums are resulting in densities often higher

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than older downtown neighbourhoods. Single family houses, with minimum separation, now lack the spacious yards once associated with the suburban life style. None of this, however, is taking place with a corresponding change in street configurations, not surprising perhaps as studies have shown that this model produces the highest number of units per hectare for any prescribed density.

O’Byrne also believes that municipal authorities have begun to introduce changes to the suburban form with multiple family units increasingly finding their way onto arteries and transit stops being required within 400 metres of all residences. But lack of connectivity — “the bones are not right,” he states — and a powerful suburban-based NIMBY-ism backed by the organizing power of the Internet makes the retrofitting of existing suburban communities difficult. He might well add that despite 50 years of criticism, over three decades of “neo-traditional urbanism” and, more recently, political commitment to “smart growth” there is only limited evidence of a paradigm shift in how cities should be expanded rather than sprawled.

A study in 2007 by Stephanie Bophanie identified only 42 New Urbanist communities in Canada, a drop in the proverbial development bucket according to O’Byrne. Even more telling, most were small greenfield projects with densities below 12 units per acre favouring single family housing. While most had some mixed use, only half had a main street. In Ontario, 13 out of 22 were in the single municipality of Markham. These results are backed up by Jill Grant’s research published in 2009 on the words and actions of Canadian planners, politicians and developers.

What she found, despite a significant decade-long acceptance by both planners and politicians of the principles of Smart Growth, was a wide “say-do gap.” In summary, “the study shows that weak political commitment and market pressures frustrate planners’ desires to create accessible and open communities.” As an urban design practitioner who continues to work on both New Urbanist projects and suburban retrofits, O’Byrne concedes that “changing the development industry’s approach is tough.”

But there are some, such as the ultra-conservative Heritage Institute in the United States, who bluntly question the need for change as the current model would appear to respond to the market as defined by both consumers and developers. Indeed, even Grant appears to reinforce the argument that suburbia remains the preferred model for consumers. In response, critics pose two broad arguments why development must change and why the market defence rationale is less than compelling.

The unsupportable cost of business as usual The most compelling argument for change may simply be the increasingly unsupportable cost of urban sprawl. Some costs are “soft” not because they do not have a real impact but because they are difficult to quantify. Snyder and Bird, along with many others, identify the loss of open spaces, agricultural land and environmental quality as well as a greater reliance on vehicles as costs. In terms of car dependence they found that miles driven from 1970 to 1996 grew twice as fast as the number of drivers and four times population growth. Suburban families, according to Peter Calthorpe’s studies, typically drive twice as many miles as

Renderings by IBI Group & IBI/HB Architects

(Above and right) Onni Group of Companies’ new vision for a retail property at 6951 Elmbridge Way, by IBI Group & IBI/HB Architects, within the planned Oval Village.

compact areas. Even the significant increased densification of suburban developments has not solved the problem. Jonathon Ford’s 2009 study compared communities with similar densities but different forms. “Conventional Suburban Developments (CSD) with separated land uses, residential product type pods and disconnected auto-focused transportation” produced costs 40 per cent higher than comparable Smart Growth/Traditional Neighbourhood Development forms.

The result is that sprawl does not have a neutral impact on municipal costs. In a rational market, the tax rate on a specific unit would reflect its costs but this has been found to be true in only the highest end, low density developments. In Canada, initial consolidation of “regional governments” followed by an eventual forced amalgamation into super-cities, such as by the Ontario and Quebec governments in the 1990s, may be seen as one attempt to “socialize” development costs across the larger geographic region.

Ottawa has been a classic example of the fiscal squeeze created by sprawl. For example, in the 1990s the then Region of Ottawa

Image courtesy of Cannon Design

those in older transit oriented areas. According to the Canadian Automobile Association’s 2008 estimates, the annual net cost for a Canadian family to sustain two cars exceeds $20,000. In addition, Ewings, Pendall and Chen cite as costs increased levels of ozone pollution and a greater risk of fatal crashes without any evidence that suburban growth reduces congestion levels below that of urban neighbourhoods. Most recently, some medical practitioners have laid the blame for the obesity crisis, in part, on how suburban form impacts lifestyle More tangible, however, may be the growing fiscal crisis facing cities. It was obvious even by the late 1950s that suburbanization was having a devastating cost on city centres (Building, FebruaryMarch 2010). At the same time, it also emerged that the public cost of this outward expansion was not being financed by the increased tax revenues generated by growth. As a result, impact charges were introduced in an effort to cover the immediate cost of infrastructure. During the 1970s, pressure to increase such charges grew, particularly in the United States where federal subsidization of infrastructure construction decreased significantly. By the 1990s, mounting evidence had been published to demonstrate that the initial cost of putting in place suburban infrastructure was considerably more than in already developed areas. Because property values in suburbia are lower — thus resulting in relatively lower property taxes — and because impact charges, it is argued, do not reflect this higher incremental cost, new suburban home buyers are frequently subsidized by urban tax payers. Indeed, since 1997 Ontario municipalities have been limited to charging developers only up to 90 per cent of some major infrastructure costs. Last year, politicians and planners in that province’s Halton Region proposed a 65 per cent increase in development fees arguing that existing home owners can not be expected to subsidize development.

This initial cost premium associated with urban sprawl, however, is only part of the problem. By the 1990s, extensive research had already detailed how both distance from existing infrastructure as well as the specific physical form of sprawl impacts on long term operating costs. A 1989 study argued that servicing suburban developments costs three times that of

The Richmond Olympic Oval, the signature speed-skating venue for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games situated on the Fraser River, will serve as the centerpiece of a new urban waterfront neighborhood featuring a mix of residential, commercial, and public amenity development. building

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Rendering by Ron Love

a significant market share.

There is, however, some evidence that there is no uniformity in demand. The rapid increase in downtown living costs in many Canadian cities is itself an indication of market pressures. O’Byrne points out that in 2008 the number of housing starts within the Toronto urban area code of 416 exceeded the number for the surrounding suburban 905 code for the first time in years, in part because, as Richard Florida famously argues, the so-called “creative class” seeks a vibrant urban life style.

There is also increasing empirical work that supports an argument that demand is considerably more diverse. American business professors Mark Eppli and Charles Tu compared house sales transactions in the neo-traditional urban developments of Kentlands and Lakelands in (Above) Quintet, a multi-family residential complex of condo units in five towers and townhouses, Maryland against those in similar surrounding owned by Phileo Developments (Richmond) Ltd., a subsidiary of Sunrise Berhad of Kuala Lumpur, conventional developments. They found that Malaysia, and designed by W. T. Leung Architects Inc. even with tight controls to ensure comparability there was a significant initial sales premium for Carlton “harmonized” garbage collection rates even though the the former and this was sustained, even grew over time. A 2009 actual cost for suburban municipalities were double. In its most report by Robert Charles Lesser, LLC concluded conservatively recent budget, the now single city of Ottawa, which has permit- that “at least one third of the consumer real estate market prefers ted significant urban sprawl over the last decade, raised municipal smart growth development,” and this percentage is growing. taxes by more than double the rate of inflation. As each housing The authors site a 2004 National Survey on communities by the unit added through sprawl increases the average cost per house National Association of Realtors and Smart Growth that found in the whole city, this is not simply a function of overspending 61 per cent of those surveyed who were considering a house by the council. Ironically, as urban residential prices have risen purchase within three years, would prefer to purchase in a smart considerably faster with the rebirth of city living and tax rates growth community. based on house valuations, the level of subsidy paid by the lower Demographic changes support these findings, especially the cost to the high cost suburban residents is increasing. fact that “31 per cent of the growth of homeowners in this decade The fiscal crisis is likely to become more acute. In the past, is expected to be home buyers aged 45 and older, many of whom municipalities have controlled deficits by a slow erosion of some have indicated a preference for denser more compact housing.” services and the putting off of infrastructure renewal. There is Younger buyers are also more diverse and, in line with Florida’s evidence that the limits of these solutions have been reached findings, more attracted to an urban lifestyle. Finally, any alternaat a time when resistance to further tax increases is mounting. tives that decrease commute times are heavily preferred.

As one writer has pointed out, the victory of tax propositions As the statistics on the number and size of smart growth initiain California has left many municipalities who are addicted to tives in Canada indicate, as well as Grant’s findings on the “saysprawl caught in a fiscal trap. do” gap, there is not a significant evolution much less revolution in terms of alternatives to the suburban forms available to the Is there a market for change? consumer. This being said, there are a number of significant excepPerhaps the most frequently heard defence of suburban develop- tions, whose progress bears monitoring. Two of the most signifiment upholds the market as the best arbitrator. Notwithstanding cant efforts to retrofit suburbia are taking place in the Fraser River the evidence that the market fails to price suburban housing at its delta municipalities on Vancouver’s southern flank. appropriate cost, this position maintains that this type of development continues to be the preferred option for home buyers. “Island City by Nature” This ignores, however, that residential suburban development The City of Richmond, with a current population of 188,000 has changed significantly with increasingly high densities, more and which gained city status in 1990, is composed of two islands multiple family buildings and much smaller lot sizes. The “prod- that include Sea Island, home of the Vancouver International uct” has actually changed significantly; but what has not changed Airport, and the larger Lulu Island. The latter is a mix of farmis the uniformity of the product on offer. In other words, people land, classic suburban development and an emerging urban must select from within a limited product range in which price town centre along No. 3 Road. In 2009, Richmond approved often plays the strongest role. There is little opportunity to test its City Centre Area Plan, a bold refinement and extension of its whether or not alternative residential/urban models could capture 1996 plan that is designed to direct future growth and develop-

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Renderings by GBL Architects & PWL Partnership

(Left and below) Renderings of Concord Pacific Developments Inc.’s plans for Concord Gateway in Capstan Village in Richmond’s north end, designed by GBL Architects Inc.

ment into a “mixed-use, transit-oriented village framework.”

The plan, developed with the help of IBI Group associate Gary Andrishank, sets as its objective a significant reduction of pressure for new suburban development as well as protecting farmland and industrial areas by developing a series of compact and engaging higher density “urban villages” supportive of a broad range of high-quality amenities. By creating the opportunity for “healthy urban living” in which people can live, work, play and learn in a sustainable environment, the plan envisages a tripling of the city’s current urban-based population from 40,000 to 120,000 over the next century without further sprawl. This includes mandatory developer-provided affordable housing that must equal five per cent of any development.

Terry Crowe, manager of the city’s Policy Planning Division, is optimistic about the urban living option but also blunt about those who want the old suburban experience. “We cannot say yes to everybody anymore but we will ensure quality over quantity in the new urban Richmond.” The city, he says, is being organized around six “urban transects” ranging from natural, rural and suburban to general urban (four storeys), urban centre (four to six storeys) and urban core (over six storeys). While the planning response to the first three will be largely restricted to consolidation, the last three constitute the City Centre continuum in which a “form-based code” will support sustain-

Rendering by Bing Thom Architects

able, mixed-use strategies — “everything is multi-use,” Crowe emphasizes several times during our interview — for organizing community development as opposed to the now largely discredited functional segregation.

Key to the new plan is the completion of the elevated Canada Line of the Skytrain that not only links Richmond to Vancouver and the airport’s employment zone but also runs down No. 3 through the heart of the City Centre. As a transit-oriented development (TOD), five Canada Line stations will create a network of “urban villages that will break the City Centre into identifiable, pedestrian-scaled communities and create a network of focal points for the delivery of community services.” Although council preferred a street level system, the elevated train has helped promote a more vertical urban form and the plan includes considerable working solutions on how to integrate such a system into a street-based, pedestrian friendly city. “We have invested heavily in urban design modeling so developers can see what we want,” states Crowe. The major villages will be complemented by the development of a series of smaller, minor village centres to serve already built-out residential communities within the urban centre boundary.

A sixth focal community, Olympic Gateway Village, is already under development around Richmond’s spectacular Olympic Oval that is now being transformed into both a local and national centre for sport (Above) Aberdeen Square, a new retail complex designed by Bing Thom Architects for Fairchild Developments. and healthy living (Building, building

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the Oval. In addition, the RFP for the sale requires LEED Silver for the development.

Major urban plans have a history of promising much and delivering little. For example, both Ottawa’s 1990 progressive official plan to create urban villages in suburbia and its 2001 Smart Growth plan came to naught, brought down by recalcitrant developers aided by the powerful Ontario Municipal Board’s veto powers. British Columbia, points out Crowe, has no such appeal process to counter what has been an emerging political consensus on the future of the suburban city. He also boasts that instead of the one urban designer for every nine zoning planners typical of western cities, Richmond has 10 of each.

This commitment has emerged for a number of disparate reasons, both historical and geographical. In the interwar years, conforming to O’Byrne’s argument, the island community produced a number of small, grid based suburban developments. In the 1950s, however, particularly after the construction of the Oak Street Bridge linked Richmond to the airport, the new ferry terminal at Tsawwassen and easy access to routes to the U.S., suburban development took off.

Interestingly, by 1957 the municipality had already approved a Civic Centre concept and allowed for a form of mixed-use development. Richmond’s first city planner, the visionary William Kerr, spearheaded the purchase of the Brighouse Estate for the development of a town centre, advocated for residential infill to ensure more compact development and (Top and above) Conceptual renderings of an open plaza space through City Hall in argued for the protection of farmland from further suburSurrey, B.C. ban development. Despite his foresight, the regulations that emerged required minimum 66 ft. x 125 ft. lots that, along with October-November 2009). Located on the banks of the Fraser an economic policy that enticed firms with large cheap greenRiver’s middle arm and within walking distance of the new field sites, only encouraged sprawl. “The result,” writes historian transportation spine, the Oval is only part of an extensive and Denise Cook, “was mixed-use development over large areas of carefully considered plan to create a vital urban waterfront based land, which outstripped the municipalities ability to service it in on the slogan “island city by nature.” In addition to serving as an economic way.” Richmond, however, has a high employmentRichmond’s “gateway” and “front yard” for residents and work- to-resident ratio as well as a daily net inflow of workers.

Another anomaly to the suburban model was the pre-existing ers, the aim is to create a 24/7 international quality destination.

Based on my visit to Richmond in March 2009, there is grid of section line roads on the flat delta lands. Thus, while exista lot of work to do before the city’s ambitious plan produces ing suburbs tend to have the prototypical non-directional street the “world class” destination city politicians and planners are plan surrounding a school or park “commons,” observes Cook, promising. Indications, however, are promising. The powerful they are contained within a grid of arterial streets and this, Crowe consortium of Pinnacle International, Concord Pacific, and Sun points out, offers some promise for retrofitting the transportation Tech City Developments, authors of some of Vancouver’s top system in existing communities.

But perhaps the more decisive moment was the introduction end developments are proposing to develop a 17.2 acre parcel of land adjacent to the Capstan Village station at the north end of in 1972 of the Agricultural Land Reserves (ALR) by the one-term the City Centre. This will include 16 buildings up to 14 storeys New Democratic government of Dave Barrett. While the Social including live-work units as well as green roofs, geothermal heat- Credit opposition promised to undue the reserves, 50 per cent ing, 100 social housing units, a 25-space daycare, hotel, retail of Richmond today remains restricted to agriculture. Indeed, and commercial space, and a 1.4 hectare city owned park. Last a recent attempt to release what is know as the Garden Lands April, Aspac Developments unveiled its plans for the first phase for inclusion in the City Centre was rejected by the ALR review of River Green, a massive billion dollar development embrac- board. Simply put, Crowe states, “there is no more land for suburing the Oval. When built out in 10 to 15 years, the 17 hectare ban development.” Thus, “vision trumps everything, and that mixed-use waterfront development designed by architect James vision is compact, urban and green.”

Cheng will include up to 2,600 residential units. Not incidentally, points out Crowe, the unexpected $141 million received “Strategy for a sustainable city” from the sale of the land to Aspac went a long way to paying for The City of Surrey is Richmond’s larger river delta neighbour

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to the east that is wrestling with many of the same issues as it updates its Official Community Plan. Suburban development came earlier with the construction of the Pattullo Bridge over the Fraser River in 1937. Subsequent expansion of Vancouver-directed highway infrastructure, the completion of the Port Mann Bridge and the arrival of the Sky Train in 1993 has produced decades of sustained growth. As a result, its current population of 461,000 makes it the second largest city in British Columbia after Vancouver and the 12th overall in Canada. Yet, according to Blake Laven’s 2007 overview of the city’s development, “it serves as a bedroom community for the Lower Mainland’s employment centres.”

Its employment patterns, he continues, reaffirms many suburban stereotypes with over 50 per cent traveling to work outside the city, overwhelmingly by car.

Like Richmond, by the mid-1990s provincial legislation required Surrey to respond to the four fundamental strategies contained in the Greater Vancouver Regional District’s Livable Region Strategic Plan through its Official Community Plan. These included protecting the green zone, building complete communities, achieving a compact metropolitan region and increasing transportation options.

Also like Richmond, the larger city faced an increasing shortage of buildable land for suburban development. But unlike its western neighbour, Surrey’s agricultural land reserves that constitute 40 per cent of its area weaves through the municipality creating three distinct urban/suburban areas. An (Top) Conceptual renderings of City Hall, (above) streetscape of King George industrial zone further cuts the largest north-eastern area into Boulevard, and (below) a bird’s eye view of the Civic plaza. two distinct sections.

Surrey’s Official Community Plan was passed in 1996 and revised in 2001. It establishes 10 planning strategies, notably including managing growth for compact and “complete” communities with an enhanced “city image and character” based on increased transportation alternatives.

The plan establishes, in dry planning language, a “nodal development pattern” that is a hierarchy of mixed-use urban centres. These include the Surrey City Centre as the region’s major urban destination in the northwest district, linked into the Sky Train. Five smaller Town Centres are also envisaged along with multiple Neighbourhood Centres.

Despite the plan and such major award winning projects as East Clayton Village, Laven’s 2007 field research indicates progress has been erratic. The lack of consistent political commitment, the intransigency of large developers and even city planners’ aversion to using such terms as Smart Growth and transit oriented development have meant that despite considerably denser development, “the suburban model is still being advanced” including an increasing percentage of quasi-gated, “privatized” communities. Similarly, other smart growth principles…,” she writes.

Despite this criticism, two key developments suggest Surrey’s in her multi-community study, Grant uses a developer’s quote, “a bit of a free-for-all” to introduce Surrey. “Interview data commitment to transformation is rapidly evolving. First, the revealed the complex compromises that planners made because city is moving quickly ahead on phase one of its City Centre Surrey council did not always stand behind plan principles.… plan which will see urban densities twice that proposed in the Widespread development of condominium townhouse projects current plan. Seven key principles are guiding this ambitious in Surrey contributes to a privatized landscape that may have development including an architecturally bold civic centre the architectural trappings of new urbanism without many precinct anchoring street-based shopping, commercial and urban building

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Courtesy of Surrey City Development Corporation

(Above) Surrey City Development Corporation’s City Centre master plan for Surrey.

residential development of “beautiful city form” on finer grained, integrated streets. Sustainable design and a network of green spaces and public venues round out the prime objectives. That the city is serious about built form is illustrated by the February 2010 announcement of the winners of its international design competition called “Townshift: Suburb into City.” The five projects are each intended to transform a “suburban condition” in five Surrey communities.

Phase one includes the $500-million civic centre comprising a city hall (Kasian Architecture and Moriyama and Teshima Architects) for which the final design is about to be released with construction to start early in 2011, a central library (Bing Thom Architects) now in construction, and a performing arts center, all surrounding a civic plaza. To the south, Simon Fraser University has applied to the province for funding to expand its existing facility into a major urban satellite campus. Jim Cox, CEO of the Surrey City Development Corporation told me “we have a young population and the intent is to have them educated

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in our own university and then find jobs in Surrey.” The goal, he continues, is to move from 0.6 jobs per resident to a 1:1 ratio which is why the city is working on securing high-end commercial buildings into the civic centre and working with Simon Fraser University to develop quality student housing.

To the east, the area along King George Highway will be transformed into a major commercial, retail and high-density residential areas including transforming the street into an elegant urban boulevard. At the same time, the Sky Train station will be enlarged and better integrated into the Bus Transit interchange on City Parkway, itself slated to emerge as a secondary “high street.”

Equally important, since 2007 the city has been in the process of significantly revising its official plan. While not yet complete, gone is the dry planning vocabulary of the earlier plan, so too any ambiguity about Surrey’s commitment to Smart Growth, TOD and a vibrant urban future. The catalyst is the September 2008 approved Sustainability Charter, an elegant 71-page manifesto that Mayor Diane Watts introduces as the “comprehensible lens through which we will view all future initiatives, programs and plans.” Not surprisingly, Cox has a different view than Laven and Dale, believing Surrey’s mayor and council are so progressive and committed to fundamental change that “the message is starting to get out.”

Perhaps inspired by Copenhagen’s three-prong approach (Building, February-March 2010), the Charter establishes three “pillars of sustainability” — the socio-cultural, the economic and the environmental — that must be considered together to ensure the highest future quality of life. And it also makes clear that “‘quality of life’ does not have the same meaning as ‘standard of living’ and does not imply promoting increases in quantity of goods and resources consumed.” In response, Surrey has shifted to “triple bottom line accounting” that addresses all three pillars of sustainability while striving also to obtain a zero-carbon footprint. A progress report for 2009 delivered to Council in March of this year indicates that a Sustainability Indicators and Targets Task Force will complete the process of defining precise measures to be used to assess development and monitor progress in 2010.

On the cusp of transformation?

More than a decade ago, architect Gregory Henriquez told me that Vancouver’s explicit policy of choking off easy access to the downtown (a policy confirmed by one-time co-director of Vancouver planning Larry Beasely) was forcing suburban communities to urbanize. At about this time, Richmond and Surrey were approving their 1996 plans for people-friendly urbanization. But change has been far from overnight. Politicians and developers, even the planners, have not always been prepared to make the shift to significantly transformed communities. Both, however, may be on the verge, forced by evaporating cheap land, escalating public costs, changing demographics, and worsening transportation congestion but also by a social evolution to more emphasis on quality of life over quantity of goods and an environmental sensibility. Over the next couple of decades, Richmond and Surrey will provide a fascinating Canadian laboratory on the viability of suburban transformation. B

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viewpoint

BY STEPHEN CARPENTER, PEng

A common debate among green designers is which is more environmentally appropriate: to renovate or re-skin an existing building or to build a new building. Aside from the heritage or cultural aspects, the main environmental advantage cited for building reuse is the reduction in embodied energy. This however is dwarfed by the operating energy expended over that building’s lifetime.

There are two types of embodied energy: initial and recurring. Initial embodied energy is the energy consumed to harvest/ manufacture, transport, and assemble building materials to construct a building. Recurring embodied energy is that which is expended to maintain or repair building materials or systems (separate from the ongoing operating energy needs). Reusing an existing building can reduce initial embodied energy, however reusing an existing building does not eliminate embodied energy since the building will have to be renovated to improve energy efficiency (new windows, added insulation) and adapted to its new use (new interior walls, carpet ceiling tile).

The third energy use of a building is operating energy: the gas and electricity used to heat, cool, and light buildings. But how do these three energy values compare? Research indicates that, at most, embodied energy is as high as 10 to 15 per cent of the energy used in the 100-year lifespan of a building, with this percentage decreasing as the building ages. A CMHC study of a social housing project in Ottawa found that the energy use breakdown was 74 per cent operating energy, 16 per cent initial embodied energy and 10 per cent recurring embodied energy over a 40-year life.

Despite the appeal of reusing a building shell to minimize embodied energy use, new buildings tend to operate more energy efficiently than renovated buildings. New buildings can better orient to minimize heating and cooling loads, be designed with a narrow floorplate for better daylighting, and the ceiling heights can be adjusted to accommodate larger ductwork.

Similarly, it is often difficult to add additional insulation to an existing building without changing the dew point in the walls, and this can create durability issues.

Of the many building renovation projects Enermodal has worked on, the best we’ve been able to achieve is 50 per cent energy savings relative to the MNECB. In comparison, the new Enermodal office building built on an abandoned site but orientated along a true east-west axis is designed to achieve 80 per cent energy savings. While this is but one example it does show that new buildings can achieve much higher energy savings than reused buildings. In comparing these two cases, after eight years, the new building will have lower total energy (embodied plus operating energy) and will be way ahead of a reused building over the building life.

The LEED rating system attempts to balance the need to reduce both embodied energy and operating energy of build-

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Photo credit: Enermodal Engineering

How important is embodied energy?

Mundy’s Bay Public School in Midland reused materials from the previous demolished building, resulting in lower embodied energy, and the new design (rather than just renovating the old building) meant the building was able to achieve predicted operating energy savings of 47 per cent.

ings. LEED 2009 provides 19 points for the operating energy efficiency of a building compared with four points available for building reuse. Whether a new or renovated building, LEED encourages reduction in embodied energy through the use of salvaged, recycled, and local materials as well as providing points for designing building durability.

Certain building materials require less energy to harvest or manufacture than others, such as wood that has lower embodied energy than concrete. However, the comparison is not simple, as concrete provides more thermal mass than wood and this can reduce operating energy. The embodied energy associated with various building materials is available using the ATHENA Impact Estimator for Buildings software. However, Enermodal’s experience during the design of a dozen building reuse projects is that it is difficult to reduce the overall energy use of a building through alternative material selection.

A renovation of an existing building or the reuse of a significant portion of a demolition project obviously has lower embodied energy than a new build. However, to say that a renovated building is more environmentally friendly than a new building as a result of this fact is incorrect. Of course the embodied energy of a building is important and design teams should consider how to minimize this environmental impact. However operating energy, which is expended year after year for upwards of 50 years, should receive the most attention by design teams. B Stephen Carpenter is president of Enermodal Engineering and was Canada’s first LEED Accredited Professional as well as serving as the current chair of the Technical Advisory Group for the Canada Green Building Council. Enermodal has been Canada’s largest firm exclusively dedicated to creating energy and resource efficient buildings since 1980, certifying more LEED buildings than any other firm.

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