Build it and they will come. Like the proverbial baseball diamond of the W.P. Kinsella novel Shoeless Joe, the same could be said of sustainable buildings. Less than five years ago, terms such as GHGs and LEED were far from being part of the everyday lexicon. Today, it’s a whole different story. From front-and-centre public projects, to social housing, to groundbreaking new developments, when it comes to buildings in B.C., these days everything’s coming up green.
Garden glory
Perhaps the best place to start in a story highlighting B.C.’s distinguished sustainable building projects is the new visitor centre at VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver. Opened in fall 2011, designed to be LEED platinum (the very highest standard), it’s the garden gateway – a space that, among the project’s many objectives, needed to inspire visitors and “to demonstrate the best of environmental stewardship” throughout the building and the garden.
Designing and building the visitor centre called for adhering to the Living Building Challenge, the most stringent measure of sustainability in the built environment. Among other things, this meant ensuring that the project would cause no negative environmental impacts; the building’s energy needs would be supplied by onsite renewable energy; materials used in construction would be safe, healthy and responsible for all species; the facility would be “water independent,” meaning that 100 per cent of water used would come from captured precipitation or be reused water purified without the use of chemicals but by natural vegetation grown at VanDusen; the building would be a healthy indoor space and one “intended solely for human delight and the celebration of culture, spirit and place appropriate to the function of the building.”
Perkins+Will was the architectural firm tasked with meeting the project’s many goals. Jim Huffman, one of the project’s architects, says the result is a building that is “at the forefront of green design targeting the Living Building Challenge, as well as being an appropriate iconic structure representing the garden.”
The VanDusen project takes sustainability in B.C. buildings to the next level in that it “brings regenerative thought to design,” says Huffman. “By mimicking nature, the project helps rebuild nature around us.”
Huffman cites the example of the building’s solar chimney, which works by converting solar energy into convection air, promoting cross-ventilation without the need for fans or motors.
Signing on to the project was a win all around for Sharp & Diamond. Together with architect Cornelia Oberlander, the firm was responsible for designing what is perhaps the building’s and one of Vancouver’s showcase sustainable features: it’s living roof. Its design allows it to evolve without irrigation and with only minimal maintenance while serving as host to an ecologically diverse plant community that includes 25,000 plantings and more than 25 species.
Ken Larsson, principal at Sharp & Diamond, is especially pleased to have met the design objective of “a living roof reflecting the Pacific Northwest coastal grassland community,” while at the same time “creating a harmonious balance between architecture and landscape.”
Houston Landscapes installed the roof, a unique project according to principal Jeremy Miller in that “most roofs are either sloped or flat, but this roof had a 3D-like surface to it, with dips and bumps.”
Miller calls the VanDusen project “probably one of the most complex green roofs in North America” and a “landmark building in the city of Vancouver,” and says the most challenging aspect of the installation came from creating three separate green roof systems that needed to appear as one green roof.
Bringing sustainability to social housing ?
With more than 70,000 units of new and existing social housing stock, and adding 1,500 new units each year, greening its new and existing inventory has been a priority for BC Housing. It’s mandated with developing, managing and administering a wide range of subsidized housing options across the province in conjunction with private and non-profit housing providers, health authorities and community groups.
Today, BC Housing has new building projects under construction provincewide registered with the Canadian Green Building Council (CaGBC), including some of the first LEED gold buildings in northern B.C. Further, a growing number of the organization’s buildings are being recognized and winning awards for their sustainability features, design innovations and heritage conservation. These include Camas Gardens in Victoria, which won a Wood Works! Wood Design Award for the multi-unit residential category; Greenbrook in Surrey, which took home the Silver Award of Excellence in sustainable construction and innovation from the Vancouver Regional Construction Association; and Apple Valley Seniors’ Housing and Willowbridge, both in Kelowna, which received OMREB Commercial Building Awards.
Specific projects showcasing how the organization is bringing sustainability to social housing include the Friendship Lodge in Prince George, BC Housing’s first development to achieve LEED gold certification, and Tutt Street Place in Kelowna. The Friendship Lodge, a 30-unit housing development, boasts features such as materials minimizing volatile organic compounds, and asphalt shingles that reflect light from the sun – reducing the impact of “heat islands” on the local climate. Tutt Street, a facility with 39 apartments and integrated support services to help women and women with children who are homeless, at risk of homelessness or have proven financial need, is an inspired space with features that include shade trees (planted to help cool the building during the summer months) and an onsite playground with a water-permeable surface.
Taking sustainability to another level, the organization has even won awards for its efforts on the demolition front, including the Canadian Urban Institute’s People’s Choice Award for its leadership and innovation in brownfield redevelopment related to the demolition of Little Mountain in Vancouver, B.C.’s oldest public housing site.
Shayne Ramsay, BC Housing’s CEO, believes his organization has a critical role to play in raising the sustainability bar ever higher.
“As a public sector organization, we have an obligation to be a leader in sustainability – both in the social housing sector and through the role we play through the Homeowner Protection Act with the private sector,” says Ramsay. (BC Housing assumed key HPA responsibilities in 2010.) “And we are seeing significant results. Last year, we reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent over 2005 levels and we have more than 40 LEED-registered buildings completed or under construction across the province.
“Building to this high environmental standard allows us to reduce our GHG emissions even further while providing homes that are more comfortable and durable.”
Walking its talk?
Sustainability is not new to BC Housing – an organization which sees itself as a “change agent.”
Beyond its role as one of the largest landlords in the province, BC Housing’s commitment to sustainability is reflected in its efforts to encourage sustainability in the residential construction sector through its Homeowner Protection Office Branch, and in its own operations. This has meant taking significant steps to reduce GHGs in its offices, such as greening its paper consumption (by 2010, 80 per cent of office paper was 100 per cent recycled) and establishing a livegreen employee council, the organization’s “green team,” to support sustainability practices for BC Housing employees at work, home and in the community.
“Sustainability goals are reshaping the entire economic and social landscape,” says Ramsay. “To become high performers in this landscape, organizations need to be both innovators and early adopters of new technologies, business processes and management practices.” Beyond this he says, “We’re very fortunate to have a workforce that’s both deeply committed to creating the best system of affordable and supportive housing in the country for vulnerable portions of our population and deeply committed to the values of conservation and sustainability.”
Seven35?
May 2, 2012, saw the ribbon-cutting on seven35, located in North Vancouver and described as “a collection of 60 stacked urban townhomes.” With the latest sustainability features, it’s the first multi-family LEED for Homes platinum development also certified Built Green gold – Canada’s first double-certification. It’s also a 2012 Ovation Awards winner.
