Going green after the fact
It was a conventional warehouse, till the client went for LEED certification
and came out ahead financially
The Cleveland Foodbank had a problem. It was just too successful. The
community food distribution center, serving a six-county area, distributed
about 18 million pounds of food last year. But it was forced to turn down
another million pounds of donated items for lack of space in its four existing
sites, which were outdated and inefficient. It was also spending $250,000
yearly in storage and lease costs, so it made sense to consolidate operations
in one building.
But that building had to be within the city, and it would need about
nine acres, big enough to allow the Foodbank to grow to meet future needs.
That kind of space was hard to find in an urban area, until unless the agency
was willing to look at brownfield sites. The building also had to be close
to the roadways to allow for donations to be dropped off and picked up and
to feel safe for the many volunteers who spend their hours there.
According to Monica Green, who is advising the Foodbank on LEED certification,
the whole idea of a foodbank is essentially a green one, involving the recycling
of a resource for use instead of wasting it. Green is an architect and associate
principal at Westlake Reed Leskosky, as well as the first Ohioan designated
as a LEED accredited professional. Westlake Reed Leskosky also acted as
the exterior designer and space planner for the building.
"The Cleveland Foodbank building is actually a conventional 125,000-sf
design/build warehouse," says Green, "and they came late to the
decision to make it a green building."
Hey, let's make it green!
The Foodbank participants only decided to go green with their building
after the work was in progress after a visit to the Cleveland Green Building
Coalition at the Cleveland Environmental Center (see BXM Feb. 2003). However,
their decision to go green, which could have put a real crimp in the works,
did not delay the construction of the building, says Green, thanks to careful
planning and coordination.
Green says that the most exciting thing about this project was the decision
to pursue LEED credits with it and to aim for the Silver level, at least
33 points. "The entire teamowner, owner's rep, design/builder
and the subsall totally supported the initiative, not seeing LEED as
a barrier," she says. Too often, the response to LEED is that it takes
too much administrative time and paperwork, or that it's too late in the
project. Not in this case.
It's all in the teamwork
Says the aptly named Green, "The project team is the key to any
successful project," but especially in this facility, where her main
job was to train the team in green strategies and explain the LEED system
in detail.
The Foodbank's long search for a site had ended in a decision to build
at the Collinwood Yard site between the Jergens facility and the new Collinwood
Yard railroad facility, a decision that earned it extra LEED credit for
brownfield use. The site is also served by a bus line for LEED credit, with
RTA considering moving a stop to bring commuters even nearer. Plus, the
building is a key part of neighborhood redevelopment, though it is in an
area not dense enough to earn urban redevelopment credits. But it may, says
Green, be worth exploring the idea of asking for LEED innovation points.
However, being a brownfield, the site was just full of junk even after
demolition. Some 4,400 tons of concrete were ground up and recycled as part
of the parking lot base, while old railroad ties, asphalt, water lines and
other materials were recycled as well. And new waste such as copper and
steel is recycled by the trade that brought it onsite, important in these
times of materials shortages. The rest of the waste is taken away, sorted
and recycled off-site.
Local materials
In addition, stormwater runoff is being managed with use of a retention
pond and minimized paving. Nick Horvath, ME Osborne site superintendent,
has control of the site; the construction area is remarkably clean and free
of the dust that sometimes seems to be a hallmark of construction.
Construction materials are almost all localglazing from Pittsburgh,
concrete from Grand River, steel from Wheeling, masonry from Akron. It's
far, far more than the minimum percentage of local materials required by
LEED, and the Foodbank hopes that this amount, plus an initiative for green
housekeeping and maintenance, will earn it innovation points from LEED.
Comfort Systems USA, the project's mechanical contractor, found that
this was not one of their typical projects, as going green, says WRL's Monica
Green, meant extra care in engineering. According to Dan Lemons, president
of Comfort Systems, the facility's Andover energy management system, controlling
HVAC and lighting equipment that account for 70% of the building's use,
makes this a "smart building."
Mechanical systems are tied into sensors that automatically control its
energy, lighting and ventilation needs for maximum comfort and minimum expenditure,
with demand control ventilation, optimal equipment start/stop and scheduling,
optimized lighting control (including the parking lot) and occupied/unoccupied
temperature setback control and self-adaptive coast down. A permanent CO2
monitoring system is included, and the air handling and distribution system
meet ASHRAE 129 and minimum IAQ needs.
Lemons notes this building is one of the first commercial buildings in
the area to use an environmentally responsible R-410A refrigerant, made
without CFCs or HCFCs, to protect the ozone. Rooftop equipment from Lennox
exceeds the minimum energy performance of ASHRAE 90.1 by more than 10%.
Made for food service
The new foodbank has many times the cooling capacity of the former building,
with a freezer with four racks from floor to ceiling. While the old freezer/refrigeration
space had a 57-pallet capacity, the new refrigeration space has a 240-pallet
and the new freezer space a 368-pallet capacity.
The facility also doubles the space for volunteer repacking, and it includes
an exciting concept: the Cleveland Community Kitchen, used to prepare actual
meals from donated supplies that are in turn given to agencies without the
ability to make meals on site for their clients. A multi-purpose area can
be used for training member agencies to learn safe food handling and preparation
techniques.
Users of the building will recycle the bigger than usual amount of waste
that leaves the facility, with special equipment used to bale cardboard.
The building also takes advantage of LEED credit given for an engineering
system that benchmarks what the energy costs would have been with standard
energy systems vs. what is saved with implemented items. It serves to verify
the effectiveness of green building procedures, and this building, with
its unusual mechanical needs, uses the strategy proficiently. And Energy
Star reflective roofing was used to reduce the heat load and keep energy
costs down.
Loading and unloading
In the dock area, five covered loading bays allow member agencies to
pick up supplies in a protected area. At the loading docks, transparent
vents allow daylight in, making a big difference, says Green. And there
are no air intakes near them, to guard interior air quality. In addition,
smokers can only smoke in certain areas outdoors where smoke cannot reenter.
Of course, building finishes and adhesives are all low VOC, but because
the building will be done in plenty of time before occupancy, it can be
flushed out with clean air for two weeks to rid it of any construction VOCs,
so workers and volunteers move into a cleaner building, and one that has
earned an additional LEED credit from the procedure.
When the building is complete, it will use indigenous plantings to beautify
and shade the site and to let people know that this is more than just some
new warehouse while reducing the need for pesticide and water. The retention
pond will continue to save runoff for irrigation, and this water will be
recirculated. Another aesthetic feature is artwork created in a design competition
from Cleveland Public Art, to recognize contributors in the lobby and to
promote the message of the Foodbank's mission.
Green makes green
The building cost about $10 million, with the green components accounting
for just under 2% of that cost, not bad when you consider the project came
late to green, which is done most cost effectively when done from scratch.
But as a non-profit, it also recouped some $80,000 of this from grantors
who wanted to pay for the green efforts, and it may well realize another
substantial bonus from the Kresge Foundation given to non-profits with green
capital projects.
"It added many funding opportunities," says Monica Green, She
will now work on the LEED application and take the building through its
certification. "But it's not about the points so much as it is building
a better building." BXM
Design Builder: M. E. Osborne
Architect: Arthur Fee, Fee and Associates
Owner's representative: The Project Group
LEED coach: Westlake Reed Leskosky
Timeline: Ground broken September 2003, anticipated opening December
2004
Size: 120,000-sf
Cost: $10 million
Vendors & subs:
Site work, Stephens Excavating
Asphalt paving, Infinity Paving Co., Osborne Concrete & Stone
Concrete work, Cleveland Cement Contractors, Ontario Stone, Lakewood
Supply, Euclid Chemical
Electrical, Lake Co. Electric, Gatto Electric Supply
Masonry, Zavarella Brothers Construction, Akron Brick & Block
Structural steel, Columbia Bldg. Products, Atlas Tube, Danam Steel, Wheeling
Corrugated, Nucor Steel
Carpentry/metal studs, Hillcrest Interiors
Millwork, The Creative Group, Nevamar
Caulk/seal, Gabor Enterprises, Tremco
Roofing, Weather Mark Corp., Firestone
Metal siding, ARJ Inc., Metl-Span
Skylights, Wilson-Shaw Assoc., Wasco Products
Metal/wood doors, Cleveland Commercial Door, Chappell
Overhead doors, Action Door Co., Wayne Dalton
Glass/glazing, Euclid Glass & Door, Kynar
Ceramic, Suburban Marble & Granite, Dal-Tile
VCT/carpet, Messina Floor Covering, Patcraft, Armstrong, Johnsonite
Painting, Ray C. Hauck & Sons, Inc., Sherwin Williams
Dock equipment, Timbers-Kovar Co., Serco
Freezer/cooler, North Eastern Refrigeration, Kramer
Elevator, Gable Elevator & Lift Co., Concord Elevator
Plumbing, Northern Ohio Plumbing Co., Moen
Fire protection, S. A. Comunale Co. Inc., Tyco
HVAC, Comfort Systems USA, Trane
