WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2008
by Maureen WilkeyChicago-> DuPageWhen most people think of green buildings, they imagine urban structures near infrastructure and public transportation. But in the movement to go green and earn LEED certification, the suburbs are getting in on the action as well. The US Green Building Council Chicago Chapter hosted its first west suburban green building tour on October 7, showing visitors that buildings in the suburbs can go green, too.
"Fifty percent of the American population lives in the suburbs, so by ignoring the suburbs, we're ignoring 50 percent of the buildings that could be going green," says Lois Vitt Sale, director of sustainability for Nelson and the tour leader. "The site credits are different because they can't take advantage of the existing infrastructure."
The tour included stops at Wight & Co.'s Darien headquarters, the Lyman Woods Interpretive Center in Downers Grove, and Argonne National Laboratory's Central Supply Center.
Wight & Co., an architecture, engineering and construction firm, vowed that they would build their new office to LEED certifiable standards without spending any extra money. The 2001 project focused mostly on the materials used rather than how to save energy, but the building's roof garden and scenic grounds make it unique for its suburban location just off of Interstate 55.
"If we had to do it all over again, we would make a lot of improvements and focus more on the systems, but as it is, it was a great change from what we had," says Kevin Havens, senior vice president of design with Wight and Co.
The building includes corkboard walls in the conference rooms, recycled carpet and reused office furniture, wheatboard tables assembled by the professionals at Wight, and dual flush toilets, which were quite the commodity at the time.
"When we started putting in dual flush toilets, they didn't exist yet in the US so we had to special order them from Australia," says James Mark, vice president and Chicago office manager with Wight and Co. "Then about seven months later they approved them in the US."
The roofing and gardening system also plays a big role in Wight's sustainable concept. The roof was just completed a few weeks ago and includes different gardens to match different systems. A rain garden around the edges of the building collects gray water and returns it to the natural prairie ecosystem rather than storing it in a detention pond.
"In the four or five years I've been working here, I've only seen the water overflow into the detention pond once or twice," says Jay Womack, the director sustainable design for Wight and Co. "The roots from the prairie grasses go deep into the ground and absorb the gray water."
Smaller parking spaces, a parking lot designed to get stormwater runoff into the rain garden, and an abundance of natural lighting also helped contribute to Wight's LEED certification.
The Lyman Woods Interpretive Center at Lyman Woods Forest Preserve in Downers Grove serves as a hub for children's nature activities and tours. The small building sits in the footprint of a ranch house that once stood on the site. With only a few rooms and no hallways, the center benefits from a low profile and color scheme that help it blend into the surrounding trees. Its green roof also helps reduce heating and cooling costs in the building, says Shannon Forsythe, manager of natural resources and interpretive services. The building was kept with in a strict $1.5 million budget.
"The building is designed to soak up as much storm water as possible," says Forsythe of the green roof and permeable parking lot. "And we used a lot of sustainable materials and products that were manufactured in Illinois."
The building is just 2,800 square feet, but with no hallways and a multi-purpose room with interchangeable displays to prevent interpreters from having to repaint the walls all the time, it functions without the need for much space. Floor to ceiling windows on the north and south sides of the building also provide additional light and heat into the small area.
"The HVAC system isn't running all the time. Most of the time we just use ceiling fans to cool the building," Forsythe says.
Utility bills in the building are about half the expected cost and much of the furniture in the building is reused or made from salvaged wood, Forsythe says.
The last stop on the tour was the Argonne National Laboratory Central Supply Center. The facility was the first federally owned building to earn a LEED Silver certification. It united several small huts that were being used to store and distribute materials throughout Argonne's campus.
"It was certified in 2002 and Argonne completed the documentation themselves," Sale says. "The envelope of the building was as energy efficient as it could possibly be, with low VOC and a TPO roof."
The building also includes waterless urinals and a facility for recycling computers and other electronics. Waterless urinals can save up to 40,000 gallons of water per year if used correctly, Sale says.
The USGBC plans to host more suburban tours in the future. Visit the Chicago Chapter website at http://chapters.usgbc.org/Chicago/.
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