A LEED award for districts
Local projects seek new honor
Portland Business Journal - by Wendy Culverwell Business Journal staff writer
The U.S. Green Building Council is extending its push for green building practices to entire neighborhoods, and seven local projects are part of the council's pilot phase.
The council awards its much-coveted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design plaques for new buildings and even commercial remodels. Under the new LEED program for Neighborhood Design, or LEED ND, entire neighborhoods and districts now can qualify.
With its latest effort to encourage sustainable building practices, the Green Building Council is taking steps to reward those who construct multibuilding projects in existing neighborhoods. The program also looks fondly on projects that are situated near transit lines and within walking distance to business, schools and even food sources. Housing diversity, including affordable housing, is encouraged as well.
Nearly 240 projects nationwide are part of the pilot project to test the new concept, which is a joint venture between the Green Building Council, the Congress for the New Urbanism and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The local contenders include five projects in Portland, one in Vancouver and one in Washougal, Wash.
In Portland, LEED ND contenders include two residential towers in downtown, the Hoyt Yards section of the Pearl District, the entire South Waterfront, and HOST Development's 53-unit Helensview development, which will be constructed
in Northeast Portland.
Across the river, the Vancouver Housing Authority is seeking a LEED ND designation for its Four Seasons project while Wes Hickey of Lone Wolf Development has signed up his office-and-retail complex, Washougal Town Square.
Terry Miller, of Green Building Services, is consulting with the developers of the Ladd and Eliot towers, Washougal Town Square and the Helensview effort on their respective LEED pursuits.
Miller credits the Green Building Council for expanding its view and considering the impact of development on an entire neighborhood rather than its previous building-by-building approach.
"I think one of the next big things in green development is going to be district development," he said.
LEED already resonates with developers and building owners because it has become a de facto stamp of quality. Now, it will extend to everyone from planners who set land-use policy to the attorneys who help property owners through entitlement procedures. Those are important constituents, he said.
In the future, Miller believes developers will put ideas ahead of locations.
"My dream is a developer who asks, 'Where should I site my project?'" he said.
At first blush, Ladd Tower and Eliot Tower aren't obvious candidates for neighborhood designations. Both are high-rise residential towers in the South Park blocks area of downtown Portland.
The pilot phase criteria, however, allow individual buildings to qualify for LEED ND. Such certification requires not only that a building achieve certain levels of energy conservation and sustainable operation -- as it would for traditional LEED certification -- but that it also integrate well within a compact, mixed-use neighborhood that promotes reduced driving, improved water management and preservation of habitat.
The Eliot, an 18-story tower with 223 condominiums, stands over the corner of Southwest 10th Avenue and Jefferson Street and was built by developer John Carroll.
Ladd Tower, a 21-story tower being constructed by Opus Northwest, will feature 332 apartments when it opens in August 2009.
John Bartell, vice president for Opus Northwest, said Ladd Tower is a natural candidate for LEED ND. The building itself is packed with environmentally friendly features. Its construction brings density to downtown and puts residents within walking distance of shopping, cultural facilities and downtown offices.
"We had a project that fit the criteria," he said.
He welcomes the new LEED emphasis on neighborhoods, saying it acknowledges efforts to complement what's already in the environment.
"It's time for something like this," he said.
HOST Development, a nonprofit that promotes affordable homeownership, , found that it too had a project that fit the LEED ND criteria, said director Devin Culbertson.
HOST plans to break ground next month on Helensview, which will consist of a dozen condominiums, 40 new single-family homes and a renovated home, next month.
The 4.5-acre building site is at Northeast Killingsworth Street and what will be Northeast 64th Avenue.
Like the towers in downtown, Helensview will be near TriMet, so its eventual residents won't be as dependent on individual vehicles.
HOST registered Helensview for the LEED ND pilot after comparing the criteria with its plans.
"We flipped through the criteria and said, 'We're right there,'" Culbertson said. "We changed basically nothing about our project."
HOST hopes to earn a gold level certification from the Green Building Council, its first attempt to secure LEED certification.
"We just thought it was a really great way to get recognition from a different sphere of the green building industry," Culbertson said.
Lone Wolf Development's $15 million Washougal Town Square project offers a mix of retail and office space in the middle of Washougal, about 20 minutes east of Vancouver on Highway 12. Future phases will add housing to the mix. The overall effect is transforming the heart of the town, starting with a block that once sprouted a long-abandoned grocery store.
The Green Building Council says it will wrap up the LEED ND pilot in early 2009.
wculverwell@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3415
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