At approximately the center of Salt Lake City’s new downtown — the area stretching from the Gateway and the Pierpont District to (hopefully) the City Creek project and 200 East and Broadway — sits a building that utilizes solar power to subsidize its energy consumption.
This facility — the Salt Palace — is one of the major cogs in the economy of Salt Lake City, bringing in $160 million per year.
From inside the city’s convention center last week, a collaborative effort between architects, developers, engineers and urban planners took place. The concepts and realities on display and under discussion highlighted innovative design methods that make buildings and communities not only more environmentally efficient, but cost-efficient — a growing trend dubbed “green building.”
“It’s good business for me; it’s good business for (clients),” said Gary Christensen, a Boise developer, presenting at the 2nd annual Salt Lake Sustainable Building Conference. “And, oh, by the way, it’s good for the environment, too.”
Christensen’s latest project — completed last year — is the 11-story Banner Bank Building in downtown Boise. The office building received the highest certification by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, making it one of about 20 for-profit buildings worldwide to achieve such status.
While green building may initially cost more than traditional building ventures, the dividends from green building quickly offset the expense and increase a property’s overall value, Christensen said.
Some of the Banner Bank Building’s efficiency measures were no-brainers — automated lights and heating amount to energy savings of nearly 65 percent.
Other design features required a little more imagination. Raised floors allowing floor vents contribute to 30 percent savings in temperature control costs. Engineering elements generally used in bridge building decrease the number of columns needed, resulting in 50 percent less concrete used and an increased occupancy rate.
What makes the Banner Bank Building unique is that it uses green building techniques as a business strategy to increase profits — operational costs are 42 percent less per square foot than Boise’s U.S. Bank Plaza. Yet, it is the intangibles of green building, not just the bottom line, that intrigues many organizations — including the U.
Increased daylight, better air quality and user-friendly heating or cooling controls all make for a happier — and more productive — person.
“Students perform better on tests, teachers teach better and there is less absenteeism,” said Jim Nielson, the lead architect on the U’s Sutton Geology and Geophysics Building construction.
The Sutton facility aims to join the Eccles Health Sciences Education Building as the only two U facilities certified by LEED. The project has already recycled 75 percent of the brick and materials excavated from the site’s prior structure. Once completed, the building will consume 25 percent less energy, Nielson said.
Nielson’s firm — Cooper, Roberts, Simonsen Associates — is a leader in environmentally conscious development and was one of the sponsors of last week’s conference.
“In architecture, it is becoming the norm,” Nielson said of green building. “In the last five years, there has been a tremendous groundswell, constantly raising the bar on making buildings do more with less.”
While green building is becoming popular on a case-by-case basis, the Sustainable Building Conference also touched on ways to improve communities on a whole through design.
A handful of U urban planning students attended and listened to the presentations.
“This is not just about sustainable building, but sustainable communities,” said Kathleen Hill, a graduate student in urban planning and architecture. “Communities are being undermined by sprawl. There is a disconnect among neighbors. People need to interact and commute in a healthy manner.”
In the “New West” that spans from Montana and Idaho to New Mexico and Arizona, with Utah in the center, the land is ample, but resources are not. It is imperative that we thoroughly and thoughtfully examine our expansion, and choose to grow green and healthy.