[SpongeG]

does anyone have pics of it?

B.C. building greenest in Canada

SIDNEY, B.C. - Meredith Reeve has had many offices over the years, but never one where ocean water provides the heat, the sun creates much of the energy and low-flush toilets take advantage of the region's ample rainwater.

From the drought-resistant plants that line the walkway to the natural light flooding the interior, no detail was ignored in the $4.5-million operations centre for the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve in Sidney, B.C.

"We're walking the talk," Parks Canada spokeswoman Reeve said of the building that has been given a certification that means it's the most environmentally friendly building in Canada.

The Harbour Road centre is the only building in Canada to have been given a platinum rating by the Canada Green Building Council. The group operates the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program, which rates buildings for their environmental performance. LEED has become the arbiter of what is a "green building" in Canada and the U.S., assessing buildings on a point system. Those points correlate to different levels, up to the highest: platinum. That was given the Parks Canada building last fall.

So far it's the only one in the country to attain that level, although several more projects are aiming for it. The third-party LEED assessment is done after the building is complete and documentation provided. Points are given in areas such as how sustainable the site is, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources and indoor environmental quality.

The Parks Canada building was a dream project for Ron Kato. The Vancouver architect with Larry McFarland Architects. Ltd. had done LEED-certified buildings before, but found the mix of the waterfront site and the commitment of Parks Canada to a building that reflected environmental values tremendous.

"We've got a project that exceeded everyone's standards," Kato said.

The 1,050-square-metre building seems to have a mind of its own. It regulates temperature depending on how many people are inside. The lights are equipped with photosensors that adjust lighting levels, and occupancy sensors to turn off lights when the rooms are empty. If there's too much carbon dioxide in a room, fresh air is pumped in through the ventilation system.

All heating and hot-water needs are supplied by an ocean-based geo-exchange system. Seawater is pumped directly into the building. It's heated or cooled depending on the season, and then distributed through the building via plastic pipes embedded in the concrete floors.

Twenty per cent of the energy comes from photovoltaic panels on the roof, converting sunlight into electricity.

The building will consume about one-quarter of the energy of a comparable building designed with conventional heating and mechanical systems. That will result in its greenhouse-gas emissions being reduced by about 32 tonnes annually.

All new federal government buildings are to be built to at least a gold LEED standard.

Victoria Times Colonist

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=24977832-54dc-4bd4-b570-579369d2eb98&k=12739

[Holden West]

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/idl/vitc/20070204/37948-12229.jpg

Meredith Reeve, communications manager for the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, shows the new award winning office building in Sidney.
Photograph by : Debra Brash, Times Colonist

[raggedy13]

Does anybody know of any upcoming LEED Platinum projects in Canada?

[Boris2k7]

^ The Water Centre and Child Development Centre, both well into construction (should be complete this year?) are both shooting for LEED Platinum. There are probably more in Calgary that are escaping me at the moment...

EDIT: Oh yes, all future buildings at the University of Calgary will be LEED Platinum, including the upcoming International House, Experiential Learning Centre, Taylor Family Digital Library, and the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment, and Economy (ISEEE).

[Just Build It]

^ The Water Centre and Child Development Centre, both well into construction (should be complete this year?) are both shooting for LEED Platinum. There are probably more in Calgary that are escaping me at the moment...

EDIT: Oh yes, all future buildings at the University of Calgary will be LEED Platinum, including the upcoming International House, Experiential Learning Centre, Taylor Family Digital Library, and the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment, and Economy (ISEEE).

Is Gateway Midtown LEED Platinum? For some reason I thought it was but maybe I'm thinking of one of the lower levels of LEED certification.

[djh]

Shared Vision magazine had an article this month about the "World's Greenest Building".
Apart from the fact that this title can't be proved and is unlikely to hold it's crown for more than the length of a press release anyway, I think they actually might have a realistic claim to the title here. The building is being built jointly by the sustainability departments of UBC, SFU and BCIT, and the renderings and blurb really do walk the talk:


http://www.shared-vision.com/?q=node/1123

The World's Greenest Building
and other tales from Vancouver's
sustainability front
by SEAN ROSSITER

http://www.shared-vision.com/files/green-bldg_0.jpgCentre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS), soon to rise along Great Northern Way. Image Courtesy of Busby Perkins + Will

Coming soon: “The Greenest Building In the World”

Often, breakthrough designs come about as a new combination of proven technologies. Sometimes, it’s a question of new ways to construct a building. The difference may be how the various builders and trades people work together. All of these approaches are informing the design of the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS), soon to rise on the multi-school campus along Great Northern Way.

“What’s it like working on such a thing as a future greenest building in the world?” architect Martin Neilson is asked.
“You mean, such a beast?” he jokes. Neilson is project architect on behalf of Peter Busby Perkins & Will, a firm with as much expertise in designing LEED gold and platinum buildings as anyone in Vancouver.

Well, there will be beastly aspects to the CIRS. It is being designed all at once by its architects, and structural, electrical, and mechanical engineers in a process referred to as the Integrated Design Process. Instead of shuffling in and out of the project, its designers are working together, so the requirements of each specialty can be recognised and resolved in an ongoing, continuous effort.

The CIRS has attracted the attention of sustainability mavens such as Mark Holland and Busby client John Robinson, a UBC geographer and sustainable-cities colleague of Mike Harcourt. Now that the greenest neighbourhood is being built, many of those who sweated the details of Southeast False Creek are shifting their attention to the site of the future Greenest Building In the World. After spending much of his time over the course of 10 years working on SEFC, Holland (former city manager of sustainability) has surprisingly little sentimental attachment to it. He sees CIRS as a next step for sustainability. It seems early to be designating anything that’s a year away from completion as the best anywhere, but there is an understandable element of one-upmanship in the race to be the best.

http://www.shared-vision.com/files/CIRS04.jpg
Another view of CIRS, image courtesy of Busby Perkins + Will (see "The Greenest Building In the World", below)

The building’s official title is impressive, right off the bat. By Interactive, its builders mean the sustainability departments of UBC, SFU, BCIT, and the Emily Carr Institute will be represented and, presumably, bounce ideas off each other, bathed in 100 per cent natural light in a GHG-neutral atmosphere, with a sustainable-mobility program and zero liquid- and solid-waste production. Not only will CIRS be capable of 100 per cent rainwater capture and purification to potable standards, it will ”harvest” daylight. Movable louvres will change the building’s exterior appearance and receptivity to sunlight. The CIRS will, of course, be a net energy producer.

To keep the CIRS current, modular heating and lighting systems will plug in and be removable, to upgrade their functions. “A thousand points of monitoring will be built into CIRS, to collect data on the building’s performance and to develop a set of indicators applicable to the monitoring of other buildings,” the new Greater Vancouver Green Guide to sustainable architecture informs us.

“When it opens in 2008,” the Guide predicts, “CIRS is anticipated to be recognized as the most innovative and high-performing building in North America.”

Not to mention keeping those other buildings on a very short leash.

[someone123]

I am somewhat skeptical of these buildings, because they rarely discuss the costs of building these special systems to reduce energy requirements. Isn't it worse to build photovoltaic cells than to provide a bit more electricity for a building which can be generated much more efficiently using, say, hydroelectric dams or wind turbines? The usefulness of some of the special features of these buildings is also kind of questionable. When water is used it isn't destroyed, it's released back into the environment. What's the difference between pulling water out of the ground or out of a lake and collecting it from the roof of your building?

[Greco Roman]

Will it be even more energy efficient than the Manitoba Hydro office tower being built in Winnipeg? Just curious.

[Mike K.]

Does anybody know of any upcoming LEED Platinum projects in Canada?

Victoria's Dockside Green (http://www.docksidegreen.ca) development is targeted for platinum. I think it might be the largest development of its kind in North America at a size of 15 acres.

http://www.docksidegreen.ca/database/images/display/sb4564a3a1d57c1.jpg

[SFUVancouver]

The US Green Building Council, the body that created and oversees the LEED ranking system, published a report putting hard figures to the various LEED rankings.

USGB Cost of Green report (http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/Resources/Cost_of_Green_Full.pdf)

LEED Silver: 1 - 4%
LEED Gold: 2.7 - 6.3%
LEED Platinum: 7.6 - 10.3%

Costs are shown as a percentage of starting budget, and indicate additional cost necessary to reach each specified level of LEED. (range accounts for differences in climate)

The energy and water savings of these buildings have a number of cost savings that may not be immediately visible. If the building is privately or institutionally owned over its lifetime then the cost savings of 30%-50%-70% energy savings is immense and can quite quickly account for the initial capital costs. Buildings with passive solar design, such as large northern windows, sky-lights, smaller high-performance southern and western windows save on lighting, heating and cooling costs throughout the year.

Capturing rainwater, reusing building grey-water for irrigation, and using low-flow faucets and two-stage toilets significantly reduce the water consumption of a building, reducing its operating costs. Furthermore, on a larger scale, the lowered water and energy consumption rates of these buildings help reduce the need for utilities to expand their generation, water treatment, and filtration infrastructure; costs that are passed on the to consumer. This more than anything is worth considering long and hard.

[nasdaq]

Is Gateway Midtown LEED Platinum? For some reason I thought it was but maybe I'm thinking of one of the lower levels of LEED certification.

Gateway Midtown is LEED Silver

[Jared]

Shared Vision magazine had an article this month about the "World's Greenest Building".
Apart from the fact that this title can't be proved and is unlikely to hold it's crown for more than the length of a press release anyway, I think they actually might have a realistic claim to the title here. The building is being built jointly by the sustainability departments of UBC, SFU and BCIT, and the renderings and blurb really do walk the talk:


http://www.shared-vision.com/?q=node/1123

The World's Greenest Building
and other tales from Vancouver's
sustainability front
by SEAN ROSSITER

http://www.shared-vision.com/files/green-bldg_0.jpgCentre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS), soon to rise along Great Northern Way. Image Courtesy of Busby Perkins + Will

Coming soon: “The Greenest Building In the World”

Often, breakthrough designs come about as a new combination of proven technologies. Sometimes, it’s a question of new ways to construct a building. The difference may be how the various builders and trades people work together. All of these approaches are informing the design of the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS), soon to rise on the multi-school campus along Great Northern Way.

“What’s it like working on such a thing as a future greenest building in the world?” architect Martin Neilson is asked.
“You mean, such a beast?” he jokes. Neilson is project architect on behalf of Peter Busby Perkins & Will, a firm with as much expertise in designing LEED gold and platinum buildings as anyone in Vancouver.

Well, there will be beastly aspects to the CIRS. It is being designed all at once by its architects, and structural, electrical, and mechanical engineers in a process referred to as the Integrated Design Process. Instead of shuffling in and out of the project, its designers are working together, so the requirements of each specialty can be recognised and resolved in an ongoing, continuous effort.

The CIRS has attracted the attention of sustainability mavens such as Mark Holland and Busby client John Robinson, a UBC geographer and sustainable-cities colleague of Mike Harcourt. Now that the greenest neighbourhood is being built, many of those who sweated the details of Southeast False Creek are shifting their attention to the site of the future Greenest Building In the World. After spending much of his time over the course of 10 years working on SEFC, Holland (former city manager of sustainability) has surprisingly little sentimental attachment to it. He sees CIRS as a next step for sustainability. It seems early to be designating anything that’s a year away from completion as the best anywhere, but there is an understandable element of one-upmanship in the race to be the best.

http://www.shared-vision.com/files/CIRS04.jpg
Another view of CIRS, image courtesy of Busby Perkins + Will (see "The Greenest Building In the World", below)

The building’s official title is impressive, right off the bat. By Interactive, its builders mean the sustainability departments of UBC, SFU, BCIT, and the Emily Carr Institute will be represented and, presumably, bounce ideas off each other, bathed in 100 per cent natural light in a GHG-neutral atmosphere, with a sustainable-mobility program and zero liquid- and solid-waste production. Not only will CIRS be capable of 100 per cent rainwater capture and purification to potable standards, it will ”harvest” daylight. Movable louvres will change the building’s exterior appearance and receptivity to sunlight. The CIRS will, of course, be a net energy producer.

To keep the CIRS current, modular heating and lighting systems will plug in and be removable, to upgrade their functions. “A thousand points of monitoring will be built into CIRS, to collect data on the building’s performance and to develop a set of indicators applicable to the monitoring of other buildings,” the new Greater Vancouver Green Guide to sustainable architecture informs us.

“When it opens in 2008,” the Guide predicts, “CIRS is anticipated to be recognized as the most innovative and high-performing building in North America.”

Not to mention keeping those other buildings on a very short leash.

Martin Neilson (the architect of this) came and gave us a guest lecture on this building a few weeks ago for our Engineering Case Studies class. It was a great presentation actually, and I managed to get a 10min 1 on 1 chat with him afterwards, about various sustainability issues.

If anyone is interested in the lecture slides from his presentation, you can find them here:
http://www.apsc.ubc.ca/student_info/Engineering/course_info/apsc150/Sustainability/2006-07/Lectures/Lecture%204%20Notes.pdf

It has a bunch of renders, floor plans, details on how the building will achieve its goals etc.