2009 Indiana Building Green Symposium
This year's Building Green Symposium at the IMA (March 12-13) was a great success. I attended the full Friday session, and definitely felt positive about the future of sustainable design as well as inspired to get something done.
The introduction by Mayor Greg Ballard obviously focused on Indy's efforts towards becoming "the most livable big city" in the US. The Office of Sustainability, recently announced by the Mayor, got some more press. He discussed the recent deal that will result in a group of new LEED Certified buildings. This is great progress. It's far short of a commitment to build every new public structure as LEED Gold Accredited (we can dream, right?), but it's a start. It's clear that the gears are turning in the City-County building, but an entrenched bureaucratic system is difficult to change overnight. I believe that a lot of city planners are now understanding that green design involves a holistic approach that increases up-front costs but has the chance to decrease long-term costs.
Actually, that may be the best way to summarize this event. Over and over again, each presenter stressed the fact that a well-planned design that considers life-cycle costs and productivity can reduce costs. And not just a small amount, a huge amount. Greenhouse gas emissions are lowered, people are happier and healthier, commercial activity and tax revenue increases... the benefits go on and on. Green design is the opportunity that we have to reinvent our built environment to serve communities and the people who live in them. Green design is the best way to advance our nation's economy and keep our current standard of life.
Ed Mazria was the keynote address. An architect with a long list of carbon neutral projects, he also authored the Architecture 2030 goal which seeks to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. He brought a lot of data to show what our CO2 problem is, what it will be with no action taken (global disaster, basically), and what it can be if the construction industry fully embraces green design. Basically the message is business-as-usual can't continue, so prepare to adapt once again.
The first breakout session I attended was about the new federal building in San Francisco. This one was probably the most inspirational for me as a structural engineer. An architect from Morphosis discussed the design and construction and highlighted the green design accomplishments. This is the first naturally ventillated building on the West Coast since air conditioning was invented. This one fact allowed the designers to throw out all the mechanical equipment typically used for an office tower, saving a huge amount of floor space and overhead space (not too mention cutting energy use to 1/2 of a normal office). Exposed concrete shear walls and gravity systems help regulate the temperature, and the operable windows allow the occupants to set their own level of thermal comfort.
My favorite feature, however, was the skip-step elevator system. This meant the main elevator only stopped at a lobby every third floor, and a staircase was used to go up or down a floor for most occupants (the secondary elevator next to this one stopped at every floor). This allowed the designers to create these fabulous three story tall elevator lobbies with grand staircases that linked three floors into a smaller community, sharing resources like conference rooms and vending machines and encouraging interaction between the different federal agencies.
Leith Sharp was the next presenter. She discussed her appointment at Harvard's Green Campus Initiative (now the Office for Sustainability) and her experiences dealing with change in a huge organization.
I kind of bummed around for the next few hours eating lunch, attending presentations, and visiting vendors. I finally settled into a great presentation on "green streets" by Kevin Perry. Here's a great write-up on some of his efforts.
This was probably my favorite of the day, as it really got to the point about remaking our built environment at a very inexpensive cost but high benefit. I strongly encourage anyone considering stormwater treatment, streetscaping, or similar activities to check out his recent publication on sustainable streets.
The introduction by Mayor Greg Ballard obviously focused on Indy's efforts towards becoming "the most livable big city" in the US. The Office of Sustainability, recently announced by the Mayor, got some more press. He discussed the recent deal that will result in a group of new LEED Certified buildings. This is great progress. It's far short of a commitment to build every new public structure as LEED Gold Accredited (we can dream, right?), but it's a start. It's clear that the gears are turning in the City-County building, but an entrenched bureaucratic system is difficult to change overnight. I believe that a lot of city planners are now understanding that green design involves a holistic approach that increases up-front costs but has the chance to decrease long-term costs.
Actually, that may be the best way to summarize this event. Over and over again, each presenter stressed the fact that a well-planned design that considers life-cycle costs and productivity can reduce costs. And not just a small amount, a huge amount. Greenhouse gas emissions are lowered, people are happier and healthier, commercial activity and tax revenue increases... the benefits go on and on. Green design is the opportunity that we have to reinvent our built environment to serve communities and the people who live in them. Green design is the best way to advance our nation's economy and keep our current standard of life.
Ed Mazria was the keynote address. An architect with a long list of carbon neutral projects, he also authored the Architecture 2030 goal which seeks to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. He brought a lot of data to show what our CO2 problem is, what it will be with no action taken (global disaster, basically), and what it can be if the construction industry fully embraces green design. Basically the message is business-as-usual can't continue, so prepare to adapt once again.
The first breakout session I attended was about the new federal building in San Francisco. This one was probably the most inspirational for me as a structural engineer. An architect from Morphosis discussed the design and construction and highlighted the green design accomplishments. This is the first naturally ventillated building on the West Coast since air conditioning was invented. This one fact allowed the designers to throw out all the mechanical equipment typically used for an office tower, saving a huge amount of floor space and overhead space (not too mention cutting energy use to 1/2 of a normal office). Exposed concrete shear walls and gravity systems help regulate the temperature, and the operable windows allow the occupants to set their own level of thermal comfort.
My favorite feature, however, was the skip-step elevator system. This meant the main elevator only stopped at a lobby every third floor, and a staircase was used to go up or down a floor for most occupants (the secondary elevator next to this one stopped at every floor). This allowed the designers to create these fabulous three story tall elevator lobbies with grand staircases that linked three floors into a smaller community, sharing resources like conference rooms and vending machines and encouraging interaction between the different federal agencies.
Leith Sharp was the next presenter. She discussed her appointment at Harvard's Green Campus Initiative (now the Office for Sustainability) and her experiences dealing with change in a huge organization.
I kind of bummed around for the next few hours eating lunch, attending presentations, and visiting vendors. I finally settled into a great presentation on "green streets" by Kevin Perry. Here's a great write-up on some of his efforts.
This was probably my favorite of the day, as it really got to the point about remaking our built environment at a very inexpensive cost but high benefit. I strongly encourage anyone considering stormwater treatment, streetscaping, or similar activities to check out his recent publication on sustainable streets.Labels: structural engineering
posted by Graeme at
5:18 PM
1 Comments:
Great review Graeme. I'm never able to attend these events, but I'm glad that you have started to review them.
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