If Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification is the most recent trend in building construction, then the program might appear to be unconnected to historic buildings. But in a growing number of examples, the historic buildings are as certifiably LEED as the newest project.
Gerding Theater at the Armory
In fact, the first building in the National Register of Historic Places qualified for a LEED Platinum certification as far back as 2006. Portland, OR’s Gerding Theater at the Armory, built in 1891, is also the first performing arts facility and the first historic building on the West Coast to be so designated.
Funds for the Gerding’s green renovation came from a combination of new market, historic, and energy tax credits. The project cost $36 million.
The Gerding, Portland’s second largest 19th century building, is part of the Brewery Blocks renovation development in the city’s historic downtown Pearl District. The Romanesque Revival-style building was constructed as a work and storage area for local units of the Oregon National Guard.
Adding light to the building was a challenge. Its original windows were small, mostly narrow gun-sights. Historic preservation guidelines prohibited the addition of new windows. Instead, work and rehearsal spaces were located on top of the theater section where they are reached by daylight. More than 40 operable skylights were installed on the roof to add daylight to the entrance lobby and areas that are regularly occupied, such as the administrative offices.
The building’s most distinctive feature, a 100-by-200-foot open space spanned by massive arching or “bowstring” trusses of Douglas fir, was preserved. So was its rough and sturdy façade. Keeping the existing brick and stone and minimizing finishing surfaces not only saved energy and costs–and earned LEED points–but also allowed the original sense of the building to remain.
The Gerding originally measured 20,000 square feet. By removing the existing concrete floor and excavating 30 feet into the ground, the renovation created 55,000 square feet of program space. Now, the Gerding has a 599-seat main theater and a smaller 200-seat black box theater, a rehearsal hall, and production facilities.
Keeping the renovation cost effective meant that not all possible LEED features were included. A system of microturbines for onsite generation of combined heat and power was considered, but not pursued because of high initial costs. Photovoltaic (PV) panels on an adjacent condominium tower were eliminated from the final plan for the same reason.
The Gerding Theater renovation project garnered a total of 53 points to earn its LEED Platinum certification. For the Sustainable Sites section of LEED, it was awarded 11 out of 14 possible points. In Water Efficiency, it won 5 out of 5 possible points. The Energy and Atmosphere score was 10 out of 17 possible points.
Material and Resources features were worth 8 out of 13 possible points. Gerding’s Indoor Environmental Quality score was 14 out of 15 possible points. For Innovation and Design Process, the project received 5 out of 5 possible points.
Given Portland’s annual rainfall of 37 inches, sustainable features that offer even modest improvements in reducing the amount and flow rate of stormwater are carefully considered. Such was the case with the rainwater harvesting system. It would not pay for itself at current water utility rates, but the benefit to the environment was immediate.
“When the design team and owner looked at all sides of the question–the risk of future water and sewer fees rising, the importance of aggressive water conservation for the concept of the building and its public role in the city, the cultural importance of conservation in this region–there were many compelling nonfinancial reasons for raising the bar for water conservation and reuse,” says David Posada of GBD Architects, the project’s design firm.
It’s possible that the system may eventually pay for itself, considered against higher future water rates. Certainly the benefit to the environment was immediate.
“There is a lot of public awareness of the environmental impacts of combined sewer overflow [CSO] events on the Willamette River, so any project that reduces its stormwater runoff during those events plays a critical role in improving the water quality of the Willamette,” says Posada.
The Gerding’s rainwater harvesting system includes a 12,000-gallon underground cistern, which is located near the front (street) side of the building. Rainwater captured from the 20,000-square-foot roof is used to flush toilets and urinals.
“Not many commercial buildings are doing this,” Posada notes, “but the process for getting code approval for using rainwater for flushing toilets is getting easier in Portland.”
Combined with dual-flush toilets and low-flow showerheads and faucets, the demand for municipal water for sewage conveyance is 50% less than what it would be without these features.
Overflow from the cistern and runoff from part of the sidewalk drain into a stormwater planter with native plants. The project’s native landscaping made an irrigation system totally unnecessary, thereby winning more LEED points. Combining all of these water-saving features reduced the theater’s water usage by 88%.
A small park along the long side of the building offers outdoor seating and space for a bioswale with native vegetation. Because there is little open space in the neighborhood, giving up several parking spaces and narrowing the street to provide the area were deemed a fair trade.
Pervious pavers and bioswales accommodate rainwater from the sidewalks. Native species of street trees infiltrate some of the rain onsite.
Unlike many LEED projects that focus on gaining certification points for reducing operating energy consumption, the renovation of the Gerding Theater didn’t allow many of those strategies.
“We were dealing with a number of constraints–a high-rise building to the south that blocked solar access for PV panels, a historic masonry shell that had to be preserved in its original state–that took away a designer’s most powerful tools for energy-efficient design: building massing, orientation, and envelope,” Posada says.
Those limitations meant that “the design team had to pursue all remaining LEED credits even more aggressively,” he adds. “More designers are recognizing, however, that the next most pressing environmental crisis is likely to be water.”
When a building covers an entire site, which is the case with many urban buildings, then “the greatest synergy we see is if the project is able to use a green roof for a large percentage of the roof area. That helps achieve a number of credits, including stormwater management,” Posada says. “When a green roof is unfeasible due to historic constraints, such as at the Gerding Theater, or for programmatic reasons, rainwater harvesting for toilet flushing or landscape irrigation becomes the next best way to reduce stormwater volumes, but at a significantly greater cost.”
Reflecting on trends for project designs, Posada notes, “We’re seeing a growing recognition that green infrastructure systems that provide ecosystem services, such as stormwater management, also provide significant social and aesthetic benefits.”
Being pragmatic in uncertain economic times, Posada says, “The more functions a design can provide–detention, infiltration, habitat, air quality, views of nature, beauty, and places for recreation–the less likely it is to be cut from the budget.
“To achieve these multiple benefits, however,” he continues, “requires a more integrated design process with an early input from engineers, contractors, and landscape architects. Design teams have to coordinate structural costs to support additional loads, envelope details for waterproofing, soil depths and planting plans to accommodate calculated water volumes, and cistern sizes to meet season demands.”Blackstone Station
That type of planning, with all entities involved in the design process as soon as possible, is what happened with the Blackstone Station renovation project at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. Sustainability features were also a given from the beginning.
Thomas Vautin, Harvard’s associate vice president for University Operating Services, announced at the request-for-proposal (RFP) stage of the project that the firm selected for the design would be chosen based on its demonstrated experience in applying sustainability concepts and principles. Blackstone’s LEED and sustainability goals were even included in the RFP.
Several buildings at Harvard have earned LEED certification, but the university’s first Platinum LEED rating was also awarded for the renovation of a historic building. Buildings, actually, for the project at 46 Blackstone Street involved three of the complex of buildings that are known as Blackstone Station.
Built for the Cambridge Electric Light Company, Blackstone Station has supplied steam heat to the buildings on Harvard’s campus since the 1930s. The main building continues to do so. Eight surrounding buildings were used for the utility company’s offices, storage, and repair. Neglected over the years, they had fallen into poor condition. The Blackstone renovation combined three of these warehouse buildings: Building 7 (built in 1926), Building 10a (1929), and the Diary Building (1889).
To date, the Blackstone Station renovation is the most ambitious green building project undertaken at Harvard. It created new work areas and offices for the various departments within the major division called University Operating Services (UOS).
UOS employees work in Engineering and Utilities; Environmental Health and Safety; Facilities Maintenance Operations; Transportation Services; the Green Campus Initiative; the University Operations Center; and the department’s administrative, financial, and technology groups. Before the renovation, they had been scattered across the campus.
Now that the departments are joined physically, it is much easier for employees to work together. It is also easier for the university to manage resources of people and materials better, avoid duplication and waste, and save energy costs.
The 40,000-square-foot renovation, completed in May 2006, cost $10 million. This figure represents approximately $250 per square foot, which is consistent with renovation of institutional buildings in the area. There was no typical “green premium” additional cost, because estimates were made from the beginning of the process and all parties were involved from the beginning.
Blackstone is on the south side of Harvard’s campus, along Memorial Drive and the Charles River. Protecting the river through good stormwater management practices was one of the design team’s priorities.
Shahin M. Shahin, P.E., with Green International Affiliates, says, “We were able to divert the site’s stormwater runoff from entering the existing city’s combined sewer system, causing relief of the city combined sewers and frequent CSOs into the Charles River during heavy rainfall events.”
The project “achieved 80% TSS [total suspended solids] removal through the bioswale by treating stormwater runoff from paved parking [and] achieved a Platinum LEED certification without using manufactured BMPs [best management practices] and increasing initial project cost,” Shahin adds.
A former completely impervious parking lot was replaced with permeable paving made of recycled materials by Uni Eco-Stone Pavers; 658 tons of asphalt were removed and recycled. The pavers will reduce stormwater runoff by more than 37%.
A bioswale, measuring 120 feet long by 25 feet wide, filters stormwater runoff from the adjacent 25,000-square-foot parking lot. It is 1.7 feet deep at midpoint and can hold up to 1,700 cubic feet of stormwater.
Native plants filter out phosphorous and other pollutants. A sand bed at the bottom of the pond filters solids out so that they do not move into the soil. Drainage to the municipal sewer system has been eliminated, and the pond has become a habitat for some animal species.
As further protection for the Charles River, workers used several erosion and sedimentation BMPs during construction. These measures included silt fences, hay bales, and filter fabric.
The landscape architects chose native, drought-tolerant plants for open areas. These plants require no irrigation at all. Low-flush fixtures, dual-flush toilets, and waterless urinals have reduced occupant water use by 43% compared to the previous fixtures, which were compliant with the Energy Policy Act of 1992.
The addition of a skylight canopy and a large open stairwell area that connects previously separate buildings floods Blackstone with daylight. Besides reducing electricity costs for lighting, the increased daylight lifts employees’ spirits. When heating or cooling is not needed, they are free to open their windows. Low-volatile organic compound (VOC) paints, carpet tiles, fabrics, and adhesives used throughout the building add to employees’ comfort.
To create the open stair area, carpenters had to cut through the old-growth timber beams and original tongue-and-groove floorboards. They reused the beams to support the opening for the stair. Before reinstallation, a count of growth rings on the beams numbered 170. That number meant that they came from trees that were saplings when Harvard was 50 years old.
The Blackstone renovation is exceptional for its recycling efforts. More than 99% of construction-related waste was salvaged or recycled. Leftover brick, concrete, and block were used as rubble fill on other construction projects.
All plumbing fixtures removed were sent to Guatemala, where volunteers installed them in a water center for a small village. Blackstone’s old windows were sent to Jamaica to be used in homes that had been damaged in hurricanes.
New wood floors are made from bamboo (Plyboo brand), which grows much more quickly than hardwood species of trees. Tiles are marmoleum (Forbo brand), which is made of linseed oil, instead of PVC vinyl flooring, a petroleum product.
The LEED point breakdown for Blackstone is as follows: Sustainable Sites, 12 out of 14 possible points; Water Efficiency, 4 out of 5 possible points; Energy and Atmosphere, 13 out of 17 possible points; Materials and Resources, 8 out of 13 possible points; Indoor Environmental Quality, 14 out of 15 possible points; and Innovation and Design Process, 5 out of 5 possible points. Points earned total 56.
The Blackstone project has won several awards. They include the 2007 Build New England Merit Award from the Association of General Contractors of Massachusetts, the 2007 Honor Award for Sustainable Design from the Boston Society of Architects, the 2008 Preservation Award from the Cambridge Historical Commission, and the 2007 Go Green Award from the city of Cambridge.
Bruner Cott & Associates was the project’s architect, with Landworks Inc. as the landscape architect. Civil engineering was done by Green International Affiliates. Harvard Real Estate Services oversaw the project. The general contractor was Consigli Construction Co.
Harvard’s mission is learning, of course, and its first construction project to earn LEED Platinum certification is no exception. Blackstone Station was designed not only to achieve the highest LEED rating possible, but also to be a model for future new construction and remodeling projects on campus, part of Harvard’s Green Initiative.Inland Empire Utilities Agency
Also designed to serve as a model for future projects is the headquarters of Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA) in Chino, CA. Composed of two buildings, each measuring 33,000 square feet, the project was completed in 2003.
The complex includes offices, a laboratory, and an educational interpretive center. It is surrounded by the 22-acre Chino Creek Park, which provides recreation for the public and a habitat for wildlife, including endangered species.
One goal of the project was to restore the historic landscapes of the Chino Basin. The Chino Creek is a tributary of the Prado wetlands, which drain into the Santa Ana River. The river continues down to the Pacific Ocean.
IEUA serves more than 700,000 customers in a 242-square-mile area in the southwest corner of San Bernardino County, approximately 35 miles east of Los Angeles. The utility provides regional wastewater service and delivers clean water to eight municipal and regional entities, including the cities of Chino and Ontario.
IEUA’s headquarters buildings achieved LEED Platinum certification, the first public utility agency to do so, in 2004. The project earned 52 points as follows: Sustainable Sites, 11 out of 14 points possible; Water Efficiency, 5 out of 5 points possible; Energy and Atmosphere, 15 out of 17 possible points; Materials and Resources, 6 out of 13 possible points; Indoor Environmental Quality, 10 out of 15 possible points; and Innovation and Design process, 5 out of 5 possible points.
Now engineering manager at Parsons Water & Infrastructure Group in Pasadena, CA, Eliza Jane Whitman was IEUA’s manager of Planning & Water Resources during the design and construction of the new headquarters and surrounding park. Inspired by attending a conference on sustainable design, Whitman pushed to have the project be as green as possible; her boss, Neil Clifton, agreed, if she could prove to him that it was truly economically feasible.
What surprised Whitman about her project? “The attention and interest not only from folks in California and the West, but also from around the world, has been a true testament to the interest in sustainable practices, particularly areas where there are water droughts.”
Looking back on the project from a technical side, Whitman is surprised by “how well the site infiltrated, and how each technique and design element of the LID [low-impact development] components worked together to infiltrate and remove contaminants–much better than predicted. For the 100-year storm event that occurred, the water infiltrated and there was no ponding within 24 hours. And this is for a site where the soils report indicated that it had clayey soils and porous pavements should not be used!”
The IEUA project not only met LEED 2.0’s requirement for no increase in impervious surfaces, but the percentage was reduced from runoff coefficient C=0.75 to C=0.50. The requirement for removal of TSS and was surpassed and equaled (89% and 40%, respectively).
Forgoing all curbs and gutters meant that water sheeted, which allowed ample time for infiltration and saved $252,200. Using different colors and textures of material made drainage an element of design.
Restoring natural drainage through bioswales, biostrips, roof drains, and detention basins situated to work over the whole watershed area yielded the biggest savings: $1.2 million. The city of Chino no longer needed to install its planned 10-foot-by-10-foot box culvert to convey offsite flows into Chino Creek.
At IEUA, 60% of the parking areas have permeable surfaces. High albedo paving to reduce the heat island effect was used. Pavement was laid in five different materials: porous concrete, pervious pavers, decomposed granite, concrete, and asphalt.
“The porous concrete is, by far, the most asked about by [people in] all [stormwater-related] professions. They want to understand how it has worked and functioned. Since the site works as a whole, each stormwater BMP is integral to the success of the constructed site functioning as designed and constructed,” Whitman says.
Recycling was, and is, a big part of the IEUA project. Overall, the IEUA site has 90% recycled content. Recycled water meets 100% of the irrigation needs for more than 100 different types of native, drought-tolerant plants. This landscaping, plus using recycled water for toilets and urinals, makes potable water demand measure about 73% less than at a comparable conventional facility.
Because IEUA cleans and recycles water, the design team decided to take advantage of that production to reduce energy costs. Half of the energy for heating and cooling comes from methane gas generated in the wastewater treatment plant’s anaerobic digesters. Also worth LEED points were low-VOC paints, glues, and other materials; angled outdoor lighting to reduce light pollution; and hybrid fleet cars.
The design team tried to think ahead so that retrofitting in the future would not be too expensive. That practice has already paid off for IEUA.
Whitman explains, “We put in both buildings a “˜solar room,’ 10 feet by 10 feet, and included conduits to the roof, in case in the future solar prices decreased. It was because of this design element that, halfway through design, we were selected by the state of California for a pilot 60-kilowatt solar project, since retrofitting the building would not be required.”
The design team even put in conduits under the parking lot. “If, in the future, solar-paneled parking lot covers could be installed, the parking lot and the stormwater BMPs would not have to be disrupted,” she adds.
Industry standard for construction of this project would have been $280 per square foot. The actual cost was $160 per square foot. Whitman, who has worked on stormwater projects since the 1990s, says that a major reason that stormwater elements are not included more often in projects is “because of the unknown “˜true’ costs of porous pavements and stormwater BMPs. Thus, I kept close track of the actual construction costs as the agency received invoices from the contractor.”
Asked about trends to include stormwater BMPs, Whitman notes that there is “a trend to consider better infiltration techniques, since it is not only better for the environment, but also helps recharge our aquifers. You can’t get much better than being able to obtain LEED points for little to no additional costs, be cost effective on both capital and O&M [operations and maintenance] costs, and do good for the environment and society!” she says.
Noting that many people don’t understand actual construction costs, nor are those costs always well-documented, Whitman adds, “Folks are not counting the avoided treatment costs of stormwater that are starting to impact many owners, developers, and public entities, due to stricter regulations on stormwater quality. Finally, the additional costs of having to import “˜new’ water or “˜create’ new sources, such as desalination, are a cost to society, and if they can be avoided, they should be.”
IEUA’s architect was La Canada Design Group. The general contractor was TG Construction. Civil engineering was performed by AEI-CASC, and the landscape architect was IMA+Design.
Like Harvard’s Blackstone Station and the Gerding Theater, the IEUA project serves as a model of what’s not only possible, but also economically feasible, in sustainable design. Its surrounding Chino Creek Park will capture stormwater from the entire watershed. Whitman explains that its various wetlands (subsurface, open water, freshwater marsh, and riparian habitat) side by side will help determine the best wetland for specific stormwater treatment.
The second characteristic that all three of these LEED Platinum projects share is the intensive effort to get all individuals and firms involved as soon as possible in both the design and building phases. Everyone knew what everyone else was doing and that every possible green option would be considered from the beginning.
