[SustainableTompkins] Building 'green' reaches a new level

[Patricia Haines]

--How does this relate to the purportedly 'green' new high-rent apartment complex just off the
Commons?

This Portland, OR story is inspiring - little by little, folks are starting to pay serious attention
- and heat waves such as this week's make the point clearer and clearer: going 'green' won't reverse
global warming, but it's the only way to a viable future

--- Original Message -----
From: GayNicholson at aol.com
To: sustainabletompkins at lists.mutualaid.org, knicholson10 at comcast.net
Sent: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 01:33:20 EDT
Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Building 'green' reaches a new level

>  
>      
>      
> (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
> 
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