Green Building Elements

The American Institute of Architects recently launched its “GreenStep” online video series.  The series presents short episodes on several green building topics.  It is meant for those planning new buildings or the renovation of existing buildings, and shows how architects can help clients address their green concerns.

The schedule for the release of the videos is as follows:

• Greenstep 1: Water Conservation - already posted.
• Greenstep 2: Smart Controls - already posted.
• Greenstep 3: Radiant Heating and Cooling - already posted.
• Greenstep 4: Vegetation for Sun Control - already posted.
• Greenstep 5: The Whole Building Approach - September 2
• Greenstep 6: Green Tags - September 15
• Greenstep 7: Energy Modeling - September 29
• Greenstep 8: Green Roofs - October 13
• Greenstep 9: Daylighting - October 27
• Greenstep 10: Choosing Green Materials - November 10
• Greenstep 11: Carbon Offsets - November 24
• Greenstep 12: Deconstruction - December 8

Links to the videos can be found at http://www.aia.org/walkthewalk/.

With new owners set to move into the the LEED light Arterra we throughout that we’d pay a visit to San Fran’s newest LEED certified condo. Arriving on bikes, we discovered that no bike racks exist for those wishing to inspect the demo models. Thus we had to pull out bikes into into the sales office. Walking though the corridors to the demo unit, we couldn’t help but smell the VOCs rising though the air. Kind of disappointing for a LEED-NC building.

Once we arrived at the demo unit, we felt sad to see granite countertops in both the 1 and 2 bedroom units. We asked the salesperson about the “Green” aspects of the condo and he didn’t know much about the Green aspects but he thought that most of the Green attributes (aka LEED points) weren’t located in the condos but we more part of the overall building. Give that man an organic cigar as most of the LEED points came about in the low hanging fruit (landscape, location and other interior elements) as the green aspects hardly appear in the living spaces. We noticed the dual flush toilets and triple pained windows but aside from that we didn’t note many green offerings.

With buyers scheduled to move in today or tomorrow, hopefully they don’t believe that they are moving into the greenest of the green condos. We’ve heard that the Arterra folks don’t really care about the whole LEED system other than using it as a marketing ploy. Too bad, as the sales figures for the Arterra sit at around 54% sold. Maybe people see it the Arterra for what it is, a very light Green housing option with a favorable price tag.

The AIA and dwell Magazine have announced the winners for their “How Green Are You?” contest. (For background on the contest, see “The AIA and Dwell Magazine Team Up to Spread the Word about Sustainability,”  published on Green Building Elements last April.)

The contest recognized affordable home designs that achieve sustainability in creative ways.  Juror Robert M. Rogers, FAIA, of Roger Marvel Architects states in a press release on the AIA website, “We were especially intrigued with projects that executed beautiful design ideas and were inherently green by concept. From small ideas for the kitchen, to a way of life, the winners embodied these principles.” Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past few months we’ve noticed quite a bit of interest in geothermal heating and cooling amongst our site visitors, and in particular in geothermal heat pumps. We’ve also had many questions from people about exactly what they are and how/if they should consider them as an eco-friendly heating/cooling option. If this describes you, then read on - these systems ARE incredibly promising technologies to heat and cool your home, but they’re also more complicated than your typical AC or furnace unit. We’ll try to help clear the air!

We get into quite a bit of detail below, but before you get into that here’s a very quick summary of geothermal heat pumps:

• Geothermal (or ground source) heat pumps can be incredibly efficient, delivering 3-6x as much energy for heating and cooling as you use to power the equipment;
• They are in some ways a renewable energy system, since they use the heat contained in the earth to provide heating / cooling;
• They do require extensive installation work, including excavation or drilling to install subsurface pipes; and
• They are more expensive than traditional heating/cooling equipment, but the payback period is less than five years almost everywhere in the country due to their greater efficiency.

Read the rest of this entry »

When we think of recycling in association with the construction industry, we generally focus on construction and demolition waste materials. Recycled content has become popular for certain building and finish materials, as well. But the Sienna Architecture Company is experimenting with recycling on a different scale for their project for the Portland Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. The sorority, an organization of two hundred and fifty college-educated women who are committed to public service, is expanding its June Key Delta House in North Portland.

In 1993, the sorority purchased an abandoned service station and, using volunteer labor, made it into a functional gathering space. Expanding the building will create additional meeting rooms, as well as areas for after school programs and daytime programming for senior citizens. The community center will serve as a demonstration project, using 50-70% recycled materials. In addition to using salvaged and recycled materials obtained from companies and businesses, the building will incorporate surplus metal cargo shipping containers into its structure. The Portland Office of Sustainable Development explains, “Once products are shipped across the ocean, the steel containers that keep materials safe are usually left behind at the port to be recycled or reused for other applications.” And according to literature made available from the sorority, “Metal cargo shipping containers are an international salvage source that can be used for environmentally sensible building materials.” Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s note: this piece has been contributed by guest blogger Kevin Hughes. Kevin was generous enough to share his own experience with installing a solar hot water system on his home. Thank you, Kevin!

I live in Los Angeles and I prefer the ugly one! Please don’t get me wrong, my wife is very beautiful, but when it comes to solar power, I prefer the ugly one.

Let me explain, for the past few years there has been huge interest in Solar Electricity (photovoltaic’s, PV, or solar panels), there are lots of incentives at both a state and federal level, there are often photo opportunities for politicians, gazing towards the future over a vast array or solar panels. But there are problems with this vision: solar electricity is expensive to purchase and install; it has a long pay back period; it converts sunlight to usable energy fairly inefficiently, and because of that, you need quite a lot of roof space or land to put up enough panels to power your home.

The ugly one that I prefer is solar thermal, specifically solar hot water, a much older technology. It is also much cheaper to install, much more efficient, and has a much faster pay back. It can even be a do-it-yourself project if you are reasonably handy. As for the payback, that’s easy: you don’t have to pay for 70-100% of your hot water heating costs, and with a clever tweak, you can save 10-15,000 gallons of water annually, and reduce your water and electricity costs.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you can’t tell, we’re pretty hooked on the latest and greatest in green prefab design. One big problem, though, is that there’s a huge amount of noise and not all that much action - plenty of fabulous prefab designs and museum / conference exhibits, but very few actual installations (and even fewer mid-market installs, which is where prefab has to go in order to make a true difference in our housing stock).

Finally, the log jam seems to be breaking. Several firms have begun to produce green prefab homes for real people in small but growing numbers. This past month, Marmol Radziner, a prefab company here in Southern California, made a splash with some pretty showy installation videos on local media outlets. These homes are either a) high end or b) for the firm’s founders, so they’re still a ways away from mass-market. But, the videos do a good job of showing what elements make prefab homes unique (factory construction, rapid installation, modular components) and at least to me suggest that they’re not all that far away from being able to replicate these installations on a larger and thus less expensive scale.

Read the rest of this entry »

As we walked into the mammoth PCBC (Pacific Coast Builder Conference) at the Moscone Center in San Francisco we couldn’t help but notice the hanging banners with the words - Power. Forward. Sustain. Of course we could see Power and Forward, as we wouldn’t expect Weakness and Backward but then - Sustain. That omnipresent word like Green that has seeped into the mindset of builders and developers. Or has it? Is it part of the green spin or are things starting to move forward in a powerfully sustainable direction? We decided that “both” loomed as the right answer. For this installment, we decided to cover some of the unexpected and the questionable lower profile “green” products. Sorry about the ” ” around the green but you’ll see where we go with this idea.

We totally got buzzed about something so innocuous that we almost walked passed it because it didn’t have a bunch of Green banners proclaiming its greenness. This Verve living system offers what they called a living control system which in simple terms operates like a whole house lighting system. We’ve seen these before but this one operates on battery free, self sustaining technology or what they call energy harvesting radio frequency technology. Pretty scientific for us but the little gizmo works in a panel that reduces the power so that certain switches can come on at certain levels and times. The systems extends bulb life and new homes don’t need copper wiring installed if they use this system. We even like the parent control which operates like the driver’s control when it comes to locking and unlocking car doors. We’re locked for this system.

Read the rest of this entry »

Do you long to live in an attractive green home with the latest and greatest in green building technologies, but know you can’t afford to build one? Then you and I have something in common.

But do you know about all the amazing green condo developments cropping up across the country? There are gorgeous, cutting-edge eco-friendly condos available or being built now in cities all around the U.S. We can’t possibly cover them all in this post, but we’ve selected a good sample. I will cover green condos in the West next week. Read on to find what might become your dream green home!

In Chicago, eco18 is an interesting development currently underway. Located in Chicago’s South Loop area, it provides access to plenty of public transportation options and also green spaces. eco18 is striving to attain a Gold Certification under the LEED program of the US Green Building Council. This is a lofty goal and we hope they make it! Their plans include a massive green roof, solar water heating, geothermal heating and cooling, rainwater reuse, energy-efficient lighting and much more. You can get a 1 bedroom/1 bath unit for around $285,000 or a 2 bedroom/2 bath unit for about $430,000. Learn more about eco18 here.

Read the rest of this entry »

According to a recent study by CoStar Group, LEED or Energy Star certified buildings have higher lease rates and lease for more dollars per square foot than similar buildings that are not certified.CoStar Group is a company that provides information services to the commercial real estate industry.

CoStar tracked the number of LEED or Energy Star certified buildings since 2006, and compared lease and occupancy rates to similar non-certified buildings.For example, LEED certified buildings had a 92% occupancy rate, and averaged a lease rate of $42.38 per square foot. In comparison, non-LEED buildings had an occupancy rate of 87.9%, and an average lease rate of $31.05 per square foot. In a building with 50,000 square feet of leasable space, that would mean a difference of over $500,000 in income.

Energy Star certified buildings, in comparison, had an average occupancy rate of 91.5%, with lease rates averaging $30.55 per square foot. Non-Energy Star buildings were at 87.9% occupancy, and leased at $28.15. While the difference here is smaller, it still means $160,000 in additional income in a 50,000 square foot building.

Read the rest of this entry »