Collaborative Achievement: The New AIA Chicago Office

By Michael Bordenaro
Assoc. AIA

AIA Chicago celebrated its successful move to new offices in the historic Jeweler’s Building with a ribbon-cutting breakfast ceremony on April 10, 2007. Read More…

A Changing Financial Climate

By Ken Lewis
Chairman and CEO, Bank of America

The world’s largest banks have been joining the movement to address climate change with great enthusiasm in recent years. But one thing we’re learning is that keeping pace with the demands of the green economy will take more than just big piles of money doled out in traditional ways. Read More…

Legal Considerations For Green Retrofits

By Philip M.J. Edison

The concept of building green has entered the mainstream. More and more green projects are undertaken, and more and more people involved in construction projects are asking “what can we do to make this project green?” After the architect, often the first person to hear this question is the attorney. Green building adds an additional layer of detail to every project, and many construction practices that have been used for years are not designed to address the unique requirements of sustainability. If you intend to have your green project certified by an organization such as the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), even more issues arise.

Legal issues crop up at the earliest stage of a project, including understanding the availability and requirements for government incentives and understanding the application of government mandates. Many levels of government have been passing both green incentives and green requirements at a rapid pace over the last few years. It is important to keep up with new ordinances and to determine the requirements of each. Frequently, the attorney is in the best position to offer up-to-date advice.

An issue that is frequently overlooked is the zoning code. For example, most would agree that generating electricity on-site through renewable sources such as wind power is a worthy goal, but until recently in Chicago, residential district wind turbines were effectively shut out by height limits. The zoning code has now been revised to specifically allow such turbines to be roof-mounted. Without reviewing the zoning code in advance, there is the possibility of spending architectural fees for a design that is not buildable or having to go through the lengthy and costly process of requesting zoning relief.

Many building contracts allow for the substitution of materials of a “like kind.” Unfortunately, standard contracting agreements are usually broad enough to allow builders to substitute a traditional product in place of the specified green product. For example, wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council may have the same appearance and performance characteristics as traditional lumber. In such cases, unless the contract prohibited it, there is very little to stop the builder from performing substitutions. When specifiying green materials, it is also a good idea to require that the desired green products are available and will be delivered to the job site on time. These requirements are especially important if you intend to have the project LEED-certified and the use of specific materials is necessary to reach an expected certification level.

LEED certification is another area where many existing contracts do not accurately contemplate risks and responsibilities. Contracts produced by the American Institute of Architects now address certification issues, but many contracts in use today do not. Although an owner, or a professional hired by the owner for the purpose, is the best person to oversee the certification process, each contractor needs to understand the scope of the work to be performed from a LEED perspective, as well as the performance characteristics of the work and the certification responsibilities of the contractor. These issues need to be agreed upon in advance, at the time the contract is drafted. There is no one party who will warrant that a certain LEED certification level will be achieved, but each party on a project should warrant the work that they are to complete, as set forth in the respective contract. The combination of these warrants can help to ensure that the owner receives the expected LEED certification.

Although there are many other legal issues that arise in any green retrofit project, the point of this article is to get people thinking about legal issues from the very beginning of each project and to look for issues at every stage of the process. By identifying and addressing issues early in the process, building owners can achieve their green expectations more quickly for less money.

Green Overhead: Sustainable Roofing in Chicago

By Bill McHugh
Executive Director, Chicagoland Roofing Council

Whether it’s a new project or a retrofit, sustainability often starts at the top. Nowhere are a building’s extremes more evident than the roof: this is where heat is lost in the winter and where it infiltrates in the summer; where wind and precipitation meet the building head on, challenging it structurally while also offering unique opportunities.

Those opportunities cover a wide spectrum, and it’s important to consult a professional before installing any type of environmentally conscious roof, not only to ensure that it is expertly installed, but also so that you pick the right type for your structure. Insulation can provide excellent payback, garden roofs keep excess water out of the treatment system, while photovoltaics generate electricity and reflective roofs provide lower rooftop temperatures in the summer.

For the fourth year in a row, Chicago leads the nation in square footage of installed garden roofs, with 500,000 ft2 built in the past year, according to Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. While aesthetically pleasing to the community, garden roofs also provide excellent benefits to the building owner. Since the roof system is buried under dirt, it is shielded from the damaging rays of the sun, extending the life of the roof. However, the system needs to be installed right the first time, as unburying the roof can be costly to find and fix a leak. Also, the reflectivity of the garden roof is the same as the earth—about as environmental as it can get. Most importantly, garden roofs can slow the drainage of water, relieving our sanitary and storm runoff systems. By retaining rainwater, we can keep Lake Michigan cleaner.

Another option is a reflective roof, which can tame the soaring rooftop temperatures Chicago sees in the summer. Reflective coatings, including white, grey and even gravel and ballast, have been shown to provide reflective benefits after aging, according to studies by the US Department of Energy at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Chicago has many reflective roofs installed throughout the area, many by Chicagoland Roofing Council (CRC) contractors using workers trained at the world’s leading roofing industry location, the Chicagoland Roofers Joint Apprenticeship Training Center. Conversely, there are reasons to have a less reflective roof; Chicago’s climate in the fall, winter and spring means a darker color may help reduce heating loads.

New technologies exist to provide energy producing devices that are either part of the roofing membrane, or separate devices used to generate electricity while absorbing the sun’s rays. Photovoltaics are the most efficient commercially available solar panel technology on the market—so efficient that on many sunny days, a building owner may be able to sell excess power back to the grid.

One of the best paybacks for a building owner is adding insulation to the roof assembly. CRC Contractors and Local 11 Roofers are uniquely qualified to provide and install roofing systems with excellent insulation values to reduce heating and cooling bills.

Be sure to have a roofing professional check building code requirements for wind and fire resistance for all these types of roof systems. As with any major purchase like roofing, ask how long the system has been in service so you are assured longevity in a large capital asset, your roof.

Whether it’s the reflective roofs at Midway Airport, the gardens atop the Chicago Cultural Center and City Hall or the many photovoltaics on projects throughout the metropolitan area, few are as experienced with installing these systems than CRC companies. For over 100 years, this union coalition has been topping buildings in Chicago and the suburbs, and they’ve led the way locally with sustainable roofing.

Retrofitting for Sustainability

By Karl Heitman, AIA, LEED-AP

In the effort to reduce negative impacts that buildings have on the environment, we cannot overlook the massive environmental challenge that the majority of our existing buildings present. A limited view of sustainability, relating only to new construction, would overlook the primary sources of ineffecient energy use and harmful emissions that are attributable to existing buildings. Read More…

Green Collar Insulators

By Brian Glynn, Heat and Frost Insulators—Local 17 and
Alec Rexroat, Illinois Regional Insulation Contractors Association

The past few years have seen a movement in America towards thinking “green.” Many new green products, services and technologies have emerged to take advantage of this trend. But this development isn’t just a fad. Citizens and policymakers are confronting the reality of global warming and recognizing the opportunities that can come from taking collective action. All you have to do is watch the news to hear all of the presidential candidates speak about building a new green economy to create jobs while protecting the environment. Many of these “green-collar” jobs will put to use existing expertise for work that is impossible to ship overseas.
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Silver Merchandise: The Mart’s LEED Journey

The world’s largest commercial building, The Merchandise Mart Chicago, achieved U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Existing Building (LEED-EB) Silver certification in November 2007. This was a tremendous accomplishment for a 75+ year-old building that encompasses 4.2 million square feet and houses over 700 tenants, especially considering that the unique tenant roster includes retailers, wholesale showrooms and corporate offices. Read More…

2008 Building Green Chicago Conference

Index Publishing Corporation worked closely with Chicago’s Chief Environmental Officer, Sadhu Johnston, DOE and DOB to develop this annual program that focused on sustainable design and development in the context of retrofitting existing buildings and leased space, as well as the broader environmental, social and economic imperatives.
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Green Building and Climate in Chicago

By Sadhu Johnston, Chief Environmental Officer, Chicago Department of Environment and
Joyce Coffee, Director of Project Development, Policy and Research, Chicago Department of Environment

Recent analysis of carbon emissions in Chicago exemplifies the important role that the built environment can play in addressing climate change. Over 70 percent of green house gases produced in Chicago come from energy used in or by buildings. Thus, addressing climate change in Chicago will necessitate making both new buildings and existing buildings more energy efficient. Read More…

The Key to Green: Education

By Doug Widener
Executive Director, USGBC-Chicago

American buildings turn out to be extremely wasteful both during and after development. A typical commercial construction site, for instance, generates up to two and a half pounds of solid waste per square foot—that’s over one million tons of garbage for a project the size of the John Hancock Center. Read More…