[SustainableTompkins] Building 'green' reaches a new level

Tue Aug 1 22:33:20 PDT 2006

(Let's emulate this with all new  development in Ithaca area.)

Building 'green' reaches a new  level
Updated  7/26/2006 11:59 PM  ET

By John Ritter, USA TODAY

PORTLAND, Ore. — Michelle Walsh looks out a wall of  windows in her airy new 
condo high above the Willamette River. Across hills and  forests loom 
snow-capped Mount Hood and, when it's clear, Mount St. Helens.  Below? Construction 
chaos all around.
Walsh revels in it. She and her husband, Edward, proudly  wear "urban 
pioneer" buttons the builder handed out to early move-ins at the  nation's first 
large-scale redevelopment to go 100% "green." 
Call it "eco-friendly." Call it "sustainable." Portland's  $2.2 billion South 
Waterfront project, rising on a decaying industrial site  south of downtown, 
signals a watershed in the green-building boom. 
A trend that has taken hold across the USA in the past few  years is evolving 
to a new level. What has been a patchwork of green buildings  in many cities 
is expanding to whole communities, whole neighborhoods. Portland,  well known 
as an urban-design innovator, particularly for its transit-oriented  
developments, is leading the way again. 
The green ethic — energy-efficient, water-stingy buildings  full of features 
that stress the natural over the chemical, the recycled over  the new and the 
renewable over the finite — is firmly mainstream. 
"The big developers, the people who build America, are slow  to move," says 
Charles Lockwood, an environmental and real estate consultant  based in 
Southern California. "They still see a hint of tie-dye and wind chimes  in green 
building. That's changing quickly. There's critical mass." 
Even in suburbia, home of large-production builders of  single-family homes. 
"There's a lot more consumer interest. It's starting to be  a groundswell," 
says Calli Schmidt, a spokeswoman for the National Association  of Home 
Builders in Washington. A McGraw-Hill Construction survey in March  predicted that 
green building would reach a "tipping point" next year and that  two-thirds of 
builders would be building green homes. 
Common features now found in green buildings include:  non-toxic paint and 
finishes, wheatboard cabinetry, low-flow showerheads and  toilets, wood floors 
of Brazilian cherry, Caribbean walnut and other  plantation-grown varieties, 
high-efficiency heating and cooling systems,  recycled and locally obtained 
building materials, rain and wastewater captured  for toilets and landscaping, and 
panels that double as sunshades and solar power  generators. 
The Walshes went green house hunting after they sold a home  in Arlington, 
Va., that they'd owned for 30 years and came to Oregon. They  bought a condo 
knowing it was temporary until the Meriwether, twin South  Waterfront high-rises, 
opened. Both towers sold out during construction, except  three penthouses. 
"Eco-friendly was very important to us," says Michelle  Walsh, 63. "We knew 
seven years ago this project was happening, and we watched  it. We wanted this 
place." The couple paid $790,000 for a 10th-floor,  two-bedroom, 
three-bathroom unit with a den — plus those killer views. 
Developers and builders aren't joining the green revolution  purely out of a 
sense that it's the right thing to do. They can't afford to be  left behind. 
By year's end, at least 6% of the nation's non-residential  construction, a $15 
billion chunk of the industry, will be green, says Greg  Kats, a 
green-building consultant in Washington, D.C. Six years ago it was less  than 1%. 
"If you're not embracing green, you won't be at the table,"  says Homer 
Williams, one of South Waterfront's developers. "We do a lot of  public-private 
work around the country, and it's the first question that comes  up now." 
The federal government, 15 states and 46 cities require new  public buildings 
to meet the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED standards  (Leadership in 
Energy and Environmental Design), which require non-toxic  building materials, 
among other things. 
Four states and 17 cities offer incentives for LEED-rated  private buildings. 
Chicago, Pasadena, Calif., and other cities now fast-track  permit procedures 
for builders who commit to green standards. 
Raising the bar  
Developers find that green technologies and construction  materials add no 
more than 1%-2% to costs, a premium quickly recaptured by  energy savings. 
"Critics will say, 'Why should we pay upfront for these  things?' " says 
Ethan Seltzer, director of the Toulan School of Urban Studies at  Portland State 
University. "They'd also liketo believe global warming doesn't  exist." 
Green building, he says, "is no longer confined to  capital-intensive office 
towers. Green technology is to the point where these  are valid questions for 
Home Depot shoppers." 
The Green Building Council has certified nearly 550  buildings across the 
country since 2002. Developers only recently have sought to  stamp as green 
larger, multistructure projects such as South Waterfront. Same  with single-family 
homes. The council is working on LEED versions for both.  
Cities interested in LEED for large ventures include  Pasadena, Milwaukee, 
Austin, Des Moines, Boise and Spokane, Wash. 
Multibillion-dollar redevelopments on the Camden, N.J.,  waterfront and in 
New York City's Meadowlands are going green. Seattle's High  Point neighborhood 
has the nation's first green public-housing project, 600  apartments and town 
houses surrounded by green houses selling at market rates.  At least 5,000 
units of green low-income housing in 25 states have gone up in  the past 18 
months. 
Corporate America was the first to see the value of green  beyond energy 
savings. 
Companies noticed less absenteeism, less time lost to  asthma, allergies and 
other illnesses aggravated by mold, stale air and  chemicals found in many 
conventional buildings. But to Ford, Bank of America,  Target, Toyota, Honda, 
Genzyme, Starbucks and Adobe, green also was about  image. 
"In the 1980s it might have been acceptable to do a trophy  building and say, 
'Oh, look at us, we're green,' " says Rick Fedrizzi, president  of the Green 
Building Council. 
No more. "The products you make should be green," he says.  "The 
manufacturing process should be green. The factory should be green.  Employees should work 
in a green building. You live this message all the way  through and then 
someday you can call yourself a green company. Until then, it's  just 
green-washing." 
The city and developers are committed to top-to-bottom  green at South 
Waterfront. 
That means winning high LEED ratings on every building. It  means streetcar 
and light-rail connections to downtown that cut auto travel. It  means a 
mile-long, 150-foot-wide greenway between the Willamette and tall  building clusters 
— not plain grass but restored natural habitat for birds and  wildlife, bike 
and pedestrian paths included. 
"It sets a much higher standard than what we've seen in  many cities across 
North America," says Bob Sallinger, urban conservation  director at the Audubon 
Society of Portland. 
Condo and office towers will have smaller footprints to  preserve views of 
the river and downtown in the neighborhood behind South  Waterfront. The skinny, 
or pencil, high-rise design was pioneered on the  Vancouver, British 
Columbia, skyline, and San Francisco, Sacramento, Las Vegas  and other cities are 
copying it. 
"We can do a much more elegant building by making it feel  very tall and very 
vertical," architect Phillip Beyl says.  
South Waterfront will be the densest neighborhood in  Portland, already a 
transit-friendly city of small blocks and compact urban  districts.  
Developers calculate, for instance, that if condo owners in  a 31-story, 
oval-shaped tower now going up were put in single-family homes,  they'd consume 55 
acres of land. South Waterfront's first phase will house 3,000  people and 
provide 5,000 jobs on 38 acres. 
Many South Waterfront streets will be narrow to invite  walking and 
generously landscaped, with "bioswales" — grassy trenches that catch  and absorb storm 
runoff. 
"Eco-roofs" of soil and native plants slow runoff and curb  the "heat island" 
effect of sunshine beating down on conventional roofs. The  skin on most 
buildings will be glazed glass to maximize energy saving and  interior light. 
Finding value in 'green'  
South Waterfront's anchor, an Oregon Health & Science  University bioscience 
center opening in November, is the nation's first large  building to use 
chilled "beams" instead of conventional air conditioning.  Picture a car radiator 
on its side on the ceiling. Chilled water passes through  and cool air falls 
into the room, requiring no power to run fans or blowers. 
The university aims for the top LEED rating — platinum —  which would be 
another first. 
Medical buildings that combine research labs, surgery and a  lot of daily 
traffic to doctors' offices aren't easy to make green. The  16-story, $145 
million building will produce a third of its electricity and  treat its own water.  
A two-story trombe — a narrow glazed-glass atrium that  soaks up the sun — 
will make heat for the building's hot water. Heat pumps that  use water instead 
of chemical refrigerants are costlier than standard units, but  quieter. 
Therefore, the builder could spend less on soundproofing  insulation. 
"Not only will they have bragging rights on the first and  largest platinum 
building of its type, they'll also get a very high-performance  building that 
saves money over the long haul," says Dennis Wilde, a partner in  
Gerding/Edlen, a principal developer at South Waterfront. 
Cost premiums on green building have shrunk "but were never  as significant 
as people were afraid," Wilde says. 
The university's outgrown main campus atop Marquam Hill is  30 minutes by car 
for doctors traveling back and forth to the new facility.  Williams suggested 
a tram to cut the ride to 3 minutes. It will open in  December. 
Criticism of South Waterfront has been muted. Developers  took heat when tram 
costs ballooned to $57 million from $15 million, but they  say pre-design 
estimates were unrealistic. Taxpayers' share will be 15% of what  some think is a 
landmark-to-be on a par with Seattle's Space Needle. 
Condos range from one-bedroom, 700-square-foot units for  less than $200,000 
to two- and three-bedroom spaces for up to $1 million and a  few penthouses at 
$3 million-plus.  
The buyer demographic is diverse — empty-nesters, single  professionals, 
well-to-do retirees, young couples looking for urban starter  homes and guys such 
as Venice Tunnitisupawong.  
An analyst at Intel west of Portland, Tunnitisupawong, 28,  wanted out of the 
suburbs, even if it meant a longer commute.  
"I'm a single guy and that lifestyle doesn't really fit me  right now," he 
says. He'll move into a third-floor, one-bedroom when a third  tower, the John 
Ross, is finished in May. 
Early South Waterfront buyers have seen their condos spike  in value already. 
Miles Morgan, a United Airlines captain, bought a  one-bedroom with an alcove 
for $404,000 in December 2004, when the Meriwether  was nothing but a hole in 
the ground. He estimates it's worth as much as  $550,000 today. 
"This is poised to be the premier neighborhood in  Portland," Morgan, 36, 
says. "It will appreciate faster than any property in  Oregon or Washington."  

Posted 7/26/2006 11:24 PM  ET 

***************************************
Gay Nicholson, Ph.D.  

Sustainable Tompkins 
Program Coordinator 
_www.sustainabletompkins.org_ (http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/) 

607-533-7312 (home office)
607-279-6618 (cell)

1  Maple Avenue
Lansing, NY 14882
gaynicholson at aol.com

Southern Tier  Energy$mart Communities
Regional Coordinator
Cornell Cooperative Extension  of Tompkins County
615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY  14850
agn1 at cornell.edu