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More building planners take the Earth into account
Friday, Nov. 20, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by EMILY BARNES
Donna Kaufmann, branch manager of the PNC Bank branch in La Plata, talks about the building's "green" design features, including energy and water saving devices, on Nov. 10.
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Last month, American Community Properties Trust, the developer of the St. Charles planned community in Waldorf and other projects, announced plans to create a new headquarters for itself that would incorporate the principles of "green" design, a system of architecture and decoration that aims to minimize a building's impact on the environment while providing a healthier and more inviting place for people to work or live.
The recession put crimps in the expansion of green as well as conventional development, but builders and their clients are gradually coming to consider the Earth in their projects, developers said. Common strategies include a plethora of devices and materials intended to reduce the use of water and energy, but each project follows its own path to the goal.
ACPT, based in Waldorf, has an ambitious project in the works, though it is not starting from scratch. The group plans to retrofit a vacant building, intended for restaurants before the recession began, as its new headquarters with an interior that meets the design standards of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — LEED — rating system, according to CEO Steve Griessel.
Among the measures intended for the building on O'Donnell Lake are low-flow toilets and other conservation devices, but the company will also install a 1,000-gallon cistern "to harvest rainwater. It's a very interesting thing — a lot of other countries do this … that's going to be used for toilet flushing. It's unique, way beyond what you need to do in terms of getting certified, if you want to do that," Griessel said. ACPT is aiming for a "gold" certification for the interior, the second-highest possibility out of four.
The building will have features to make it more appealing to humans as well, including paints that emit fewer toxic compounds. Also, large interior and exterior windows and an open floor plan mean "98 percent of people [working there] will be able to see sunlight," Griessel said.
The decor will embrace used and recycled materials to reduce impact, while the company will also pay extra money to buy sustainably generated energy. The electricity powering the building will be generated the same as any other used in the area, but by voluntarily paying a surcharge, ACPT helps fund the addition of alternative energy sources, like wind and solar power, to the grid.
Moving the company's headquarters to the new building from the Smallwood Village Center made business sense after the economy slumped, Griessel said.
"The market is really soft right now for restaurants, and that's really an area [of Waldorf] that's going to become a great area in the future … and so we thought … the visibility there would be good. ... The building itself is already built, and while it was done to very green standards, it wasn't certified at the time," he said.
The building will open August 2010.
PNC Bank has committed to building all new branches along green lines, and two of the more than 40 of this type in the country are found in Charles County. The bank's La Plata branch opened a year ago with a host of measures designed to catch heat, save water and reuse waste.
Perhaps the most memorable appliances are the toilets, which are used differently depending on the type of, well, deposit. The flush handle can move up or down, and "you flush up for No. 1 and down for No 2," said Branch Manager Donna Kaufmann during a tour this week.
Much of the efficiency gain is accomplished with automation, including lights with movement sensors and timers.
"They'll dim down if I'm out of the office for any length of time. It's sensor controlled and they're on a timer. It gets to be 6 p.m., it starts flickering to let me know it's going to go off," Kaufmann said. A sunlight-friendly design and efficient and recycled materials are other strategies to make the building more environmentally friendly.
"It's kind of nice to think of a bank with the most green buildings in the United States. They've got it down to an art. … They believe it's that important for the future," Kaufmann said.
PNC's Waldorf branch is also green, and another will come to St. Mary's County in 2010.
Getting a head start
An early adopter of green design principles in Southern Maryland was Dominion Energy, which opened its new administration building in spring 2008. The building, at the Dominion Cove Point liquefied natural gas facility in Lusby, was awarded a "silver" LEED certification, the third-highest.
The building features energy efficiency measures, natural sunlight, openable windows and recycled materials. A year and a half into its use, the structure has not disappointed.
"What I would say is, it's probably exceeded expectations. The thing about the building is, when you walk in, the first reaction is it's a great environment to walk into," Mike Frederick, director of LNG operations at the Cove Point LNG terminal, said. "From a personal space perspective, the screen windows in each office let you control your own environment at the temperature you'd like. It's working out even better than I thought it would."
He thinks the pleasant atmosphere has improved performance and harmony at the facility, though
"I have no way to quantify that," Frederick said. "It's all positive. Again, I've worked in buildings where you walk in and it's like, ‘ugh.' This building, it puts you into a positive mood when you walk into it, because it's just so nice."
The building got some points toward its certification by providing showers and bike racks to accommodate those who want to bike to work. So far, those facilities are underused, though preferential parking for carpools is more popular, Frederick said. Cove Point may simply be a poor environment for bicycling.
"If you're going to ride a bike, you're coming a distance," Frederick said.
"And there's no bike lane down that road, so it's risky," agreed Dominion spokesman Karl Neddenien.
At home with green
LEED has standards for homes as well as commercial buildings, but Mike Bell, owner of the Washington, D.C.-based Bell Cos., touts a set of standards developed in part by the National Association of Home Builders as a more "flexible" alternative. The National Green Building Standard incorporates seven categories: site design, energy efficiency, resource efficiency, water efficiency, indoor air quality and customer education, said Bell, a member of the Maryland-National Capital Building Industry Association who sits on its green committee.
A home could be certified as bronze, silver, gold or emerald. Bringing a home up to the bronze standard could cost a builder nothing to about $2,000 extra; to silver, between $3,000 and $5,000; to gold, between $15,000 and $18,000; and to emerald, between $28,000 and $30,000, Bell estimated.
"There's not much building going on anywhere right now because of the state of the economy. I'd say the people who are building green are custom ‘spec' builders, building for clients [when] clients have asked them to go to a certain level," Bell said. "I will say, we think there is a light at the end of the tunnel that's not the train. People look at the product and ask the question, ‘What do I need to do [in terms of] efficient windows, the level of insulation, water resources and indoor air quality … to make my product green.' So when they gear back up and start building, you'll see more of them building green."
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