EQUITY GREEN

Citygate Ecotower In London

Skyscraper News reports that the Citygate Ecotower is designed to be the most environmentally friendly skyscraper on earth.  The building features photo-voltaic (solar) panels that are incorporated as a part of the cladding system, which channels the captured energy directly onto on-floor outlets to run equipment like computers and laptops.  I didn't like the tower's design at first.  But the more I learned, the more I liked the concept.  The architects have really planned out the tower's intended use and I have come to realize the uniqueness and beauty in its design.  Excess energy generated by the tower would be sold back to the grid to offset other energy costs.  The solar panels, ventilated facades and wind turbines are anticipated to reduce the building's net energy costs by up to 60%.  The building will be mixed use with retail space towards the bottom of the tower, larger floor plans for office and hotel space in the middle, and residential/penthouse space, with amazing views of London, between floors 88-102 towards the top.  Sky parks have also been designed that will be open and accessible to the public.  The tower's design would harvest the wind into turbines at the open section of the tower between levels 12-18.  This helps to reduce turbulence at the base of the tower.  The tower will be built with London's public transportation network in mind.  Those traveling by subway will be able to access the tower directly by lift, reducing the building's street level impact. 

++M3 Architects [website]
++Other Images [skyscraper news]

 

2008 Beijing Olympics Will Feature Grasscrete!

Well, its definitely not a surface you will want to play football on but its more pleasing (and more sustainable) than staring at a empty parking lot.  Its grasscrete...a hybrid of sorts combining grass and concrete.  And CNET reported that the 2008 Olympics will feature grasscrete footpaths as part of the 680-hectare Olympic Forest Park development.  Pretty cool.  Actually, I could use some grasscrete on my driveway...when I wash my car, the water runs into the neighbors yard.   

What's cool about grasscrete is its durability.  Grasscrete areas can handle large amounts of foot or vehicular traffic (strong concrete infrastructure) while maintaining a cool grass appearance.  Its perfect for parking lots, driveways, or other access roads.  With the price of concrete going up (driving up construction costs) this permeable pavement could be an interesting alternative.  From a design perspective, all the holes (meant for grass) don't have to contain grass.  Crushed stone or other recycled materials can be used in place of grass.  Grasscrete areas typically drain in similar fashion to that of ordinary lawns...the type of soil used and the slope will affect water drainage more than the presence of concrete.

   

Grasscrete.com

Westgate Lofts Bring Warehouse Living + Geothermal Heating and Cooling To Salt Lake

Westgate Lofts are perfect for the downtown city dweller.  The building is within walking distance of downtown and is only a couple blocks away from The Gateway and EnergySolutions Arena where the Utah Jazz play.

   

A converted warehouse that was built in 1909, it once housed commercial tenants General Electric and Sears Roebuck.  There will be 54 residential and 3 commercial units.  Each tenant will enjoy there own private balcony and there will be a rooftop garden for all to share.  Sizes range from 650 sq/ft studios and one-bedrooms to 2,500 sq/ft penthouses.  Prices start at about $150,000 and range close to $700,000. 

But the cool thing that sets this development apart is the way the structure's temperature will be regulated.  A geothermal heat pump was installed, which compared to using natural gas and electricity, will save tenants between 25% to 75% on their utility bills.  Basically, water beneath the earth's surface remains at a constant temperature.  In the winter, that water is brought to the surface.  A heat pump extracts the warmth from the liquid to heat the units...the remaining water is sent back underground.  In the summer, the process is reversed.  Although simple in its design, the ground-source heat pump system should be extremely efficient, with low operating costs, as compared to installing new air conditioning system. 

   

Discussion: Do Pawn Shops Create Or Promote Sustainability?

This is a question that I have been mulling over for about two months.  I am curious as to what people think.  FYI, this question isn't about the pawn shop structure/building itself.  Obviously, you could construct a pawn shop out of sustainable/green products with various energy efficiencies.  But my question is more focused on the socio-economic impact of pawn shops.  On one hand, pawn shops recycle various products and sell them at a price that is extremely affordable because of the wear and tear a particular item has experienced (note: sometimes you can find inexpensive gems).  On the other hand, pawn shops typically don't increase relative property values and many times they are located in high crime areas, which offer patrons easy cash now in exchange for collateralized items or very high interest rates.  The following cartoon is very telling (btw, hock means pawn).

UPDATE: Patagonia To Receive Property Tax Abatements For LEED Gold Certified Service Center!

In December I wrote about the distribution center that Patagonia built in Reno, Nevada.  Well, for their efforts, Patagonia is receiving property tax abatements from the Nevada Commission on Economic Development of 50 percent over the next 10 years for the expansion of its distribution center.  The distribution center is the first building in Nevada to achieve the LEED gold certification level.

   

"These green initiatives are part of Patagonia's philosophy.  Doing the right things in business that sustain, not deplete, our environment are at the very core of our company."  --Dave Abeloe, Patagonia Distribution Center Director.

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PR Newswire

Pulitzer Prize Winner Paul Goldberger Addresses Salt Lake City's City Creek Center Development

On Thursday evening, as part of the Utah Heritage Foundation's Preservation Conference, I had the opportunity to hear Paul Goldberger talk about his thoughts on Salt Lake City's new downtown development project.  Goldberger is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and former dean of the Parsons School of Design in New York City.  He is currently an architecture critic for The New Yorker.  Not only did he address the design of the City Creek Center development, but he also took questions from the audience and spent some time talking about urban design in general.  I took some notes and thought that I would share a few of the interesting items.  Overall, it was a good experience and well worth the time.

1.  Salt Lake City's streets are too wide...good for driving, horrible for urban design.  According to Mr. Goldberger, tighter and denser cities are healthier.  Smaller blocks on tighter streets make a great "urban fabric" for a city (Think Portland!). 

2.  Great streets make great cities (Think NY, SF).

3.  Architecture alone can't save a city or a community.

4.  One way to measure a great city is by how it creates culture (LA, NY).

5.  Urban malls suck energy out of a city like a vacuum cleaner.

6.  In regards to building preservation, change doesn't mean decline.  Preserve for the value we are seeking to preserve.  Not for the fear of the new or unknown.  Value buildings as living beings and not as museums.  Don't use preservation to escape the present trends.

7.  Preservation makes time stand still.  Great cities make time stand still because you can see the architecture in layers...built and constructed over many years, creating unique urban design (incremental growth).  It is much harder to create great cities (and urban design) when it is built all at once (like City Creek will be).

8.  Las Vegas breaks all the rules with respect to architecture and urban design.  It has no relevancy to any other place, which is part of the reason it is so great and successful.  According to Goldberger, more people are found walking the strip from casino to casino than are found on Madison Avenue.  The Las Vegas strip was initially built for cars only.

9.  In the Q&A, I asked Goldberger to comment on green building and the architects role in developing cutting edge designs fused with green building.  He responded by saying that green building is not going away and is a steady and certain victory for builders, designers and architects.  Architects need to continue to create difficult and ambitious projects.  City governments should adopt the LEED standard voluntarily and make it required.  And local governments should offer tax benefits in exchange for building green.

San Francisco's New Civic Center (525 Golden Gate Avenue) = Greener Than Green!

Green is good, especially in San Francisco.  And the city's Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has plans to build a green tower, the likes of which have never been seen on American soil...at least for an office building.  Agency consultants describe the project as "the most energy-efficient office building developed in an urban setting in the United States to date."  Other experts tag the green initiative as aggressive, which is definitely a compliment in SF!  The building will be a 12-story structure located at 525 Golden Gate Avenue (cross street Polk Street) and is just two blocks away from city hall.  Greening the building will cost an additional $16 million to the already hefty $178 million budget.  However, the savings may be well worth it.  Currently, the PUC's employees are renting out space at $9 million per annum.  The estimated cost to house all of the employees in the new "green" structure is estimated at $3.8 million per year.  Some of the buildings green features include the following:

• Wind turbines stacked on the roof to generate energy (positioned behind glass to fit in)
• Solar panels embedded in portions of the buildings facade
• Waterless urinals, faucet sensors and on-demand water heaters
• Wastewater recycled through basement filters

The windturbines are extremely lightweight and employ slow-moving swirls, which reduce vibration (especially important since they will be on the roof) and they are safe for birds.  The are produced and manufactured by Aerotecture (cool website, check it out).  KMD Architects commissioned Timmons Design Engineers in association with ARUP to carry out the sustainable design services for the new building. 

PUC Sustainability Plan
Timmons Design
Via SF Gate

Top 10 Ways For Commercial Buildings To Save Energy (Earth Day)!

The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International recently released its top 10 energy efficiency strategies for commercial building structures.  The low cost strategies offer commercial real estate professionals ideas to reduce energy consumption by as much as 30 percent.  "The built environment accounts for 48 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in this country," said BOMA International Chairman and CEO Kurt Padavano.  "The good news is that there are many low and even no-cost strategies that are proven to save energy, reduce emissions and they are easy to implement and have the added benefit of often reducing building operation costs."

1. Check that equipment is functioning as designed.
2. Consider your cleaning options (i.e., team cleaning, occupancy sensors, coordination, and day cleaning when the lights are already on).
3. Encourage tenants to turn off equipment...during off hours, power everything down.
4. Use high efficiency LED exit signs.
5. Institute an energy awareness program.
6. Install monitor power management software.
7. Change incandescent light bulbs to CFL or HID.
8. Harvest daylight.
9. Evaluate after-hours usage.
10. Adjust ventilation.

Visit BOMA here if you want more details on the list above.  Also, visit The G.R.E.E.N. (The Green Resource Energy and Environment Network) for more resources on sustainable practices for commercial real estate professionals.   

Energy Tax Credit For Metal Roofing Purchases!

Installing a metal roof on your home may have more benefits than you think.  From January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2007, the US Government will be following Congress' Energy Policy Act of 2005, rewarding consumers of quality metal roofs with tax credit savings up to $500. 

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 allows for a tax credit for homeowners who install qualified energy-efficient improvements to an already existing home.  In the case of roofing, the policy defines "improvement" as a metal roof with appropriate pigmented coatings which meet the Energy Star program requirements.  I have added a link below that will take you to those requirements on the Energy Star website.  By the way, tax credits are a lot better than deductions, if you can get them.  See an earlier post for a discussion on tax credits versus tax deductions.

Over the last couple years, metal roofs are being constructed with design in mind.  They can come in a wide variety of finishes, designs and colors.  They are energy efficient, sustainable (many are made of recycled product and can be recycled at the end of its life cycle), durable, fire and wind resistant, and lightweight.  With the right home design (consult your architect), a metal roof can look really sharp (pic).   

Find A Metal Roofing Contractor
Energy Star Roofing Requirements
Cool Metal Roofing

Developer Mitsui Fudosan Brings Green Urban Development To Tokyo

Looks like Japan has gone green in the Roppongi neighborhood of Tokyo!  The Multi-Housing News is reporting that the urban, mixed-use project "Tokyo Midtown" is now ready for business!  40% of the over one million square foot development is green space.  Actually, what I like about this project is the fact that the trees that were displaced were actually replanted.  I saw this when I was in school...the university was digging out this huge hole in the middle of campus to put in a library and the trees that were removed were put in these huge wooden crates with a lot of dirt and soil and they just sat on campus until the library was built.  So, major props go to the landscape architecture firm EDAW for saving the trees!  They are actually based in San Francisco but have offices world-wide.  If you want to see the types of projects these guys are working on, check it out. 

According to Toshihide Ichikawa (general manager at Mitsui Fudosan for the Midtown project), mixed use is a relatively new concept in Japan.  As I was thinking about it, I didn't see a whole lot of mixed use developments in Korea when I lived there.  If the leases tell you anything about the project's popularity, the project seems to be a hit with the likes of Cisco and Yahoo Japan signing up to lease commercial space.  In fact, according to the project leader Toshihiko Omachi, all of the commercial space is fully leased up.  Not only does the development boast a commercial presence but it also has over 500 residential units...not to mention a Ritz Carlton, which no doubt fits in well with the Midtown project's overall elegant design, redefining luxurious city living.   

The project is also credited with helping to stimulate the local economy.  That's actually a part of the story that I would like to dig a little deeper.  You see that a lot, especially in big cities...I saw that happen to the commercial office space in the SOMA (San Francisco) district in late 2004 and into 2005.  At that time, leases were pretty high in the SF financial district and property managers were unwilling to negotiate rent terms.  Tenants were offered killer deals to relocate south of market...some even got building naming rights to move out of the financial district.  A domino effect ensued and now that area is really thriving.  Anyway, the Midtown project looks great and it is pretty amazing to think of how they figured out how to cram over 400,000 square feet of green space in Tokyo!   Via.