COVER STORY, AUGUST 2005

SHADES OF GREEN
Current architectural trends are saving clients money.
Chris Thorn

To remain competitive and stay successful into today’s commercial real estate market, architecture firms must pay as much attention to the details of a business plan as they do to their project plans.

“Being attentive to the budget and the cost of the building over its lifespan are the architect’s responsibility,” says John Clark of Chicago-based Cordogan, Clark & Associates. “If architects don’t get involved on more levels of the development process, they are relinquishing an important part of their responsibility to the contractors.”

In the past, this abdication is part of what led to the widespread growth of design/build and project management services in the construction industry.

“Historically, architects were interested in the budget concerns and durability,” Clark says. “There has been too much movement away from that. Firms should always be attentive to knowing as much about the building or more than the contractor.”

Geothermal heat pumps use the stable temperature of the ground (vertical boreholes are typically 100 to 400 feet deep) as a heat sourceto warm buildings in winter and as a heat sink to cool them in summer. From the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Geothermal Technologies

“We are working as a team right off of the bat with the contractor,” says Jim Harkin, AIA, principal with Columbus, Ohio-based Lusk Harkin. “We are working together while working separately for the owner.” Harkin feels that by crafting the project in unison both parties are able use their expertise in unique ways.

“If architects went back to controlling all of the construction, the project wouldn’t work,” Harkin says. “The construction side has become too complicated.” This equation works both ways. The design/build approach functions well for a product that is being mass-produced, such as a big box retailer, or requires minor adjustments from an industry standard, but the approach lacks the innovation demanded by more complicated facilities.

“Almost all creative approaches are not, and will never be, controlled strictly from the contracting end,” Harkin says. “That is not their strong suit.”

But innovation and outside-of-the-building thinking, as long as it preserves the budget, is what architects love to do best. And currently some of the more progressive projects are originating from the sustainable design area.

“There is a lot of interest in geothermal energy,” Clark says. The geothermal process is an alternate energy source that draws heat from under the earth’s surface. Similar to heat pump technology, buildings can be heated by moving air, which is warmer underground in the winter, through a thermal well. The depth of the well depends on the size of the building it is servicing but most run between a hundred and several hundred feet below ground. Buildings also can be cooled using the same process to siphon the cooler air from an adjacent body of water.

“Geothermal does not affect your upfront cost significantly,” Clark says. “And once you have the well dug, the ongoing cost is electrical for the pumping. That is basically cutting edge technology for the United States that is still in its infancy. We are starting to work with that here locally.”

Other new technology being integrated into projects are remote controlled and automated mechanical and electronic systems. These new remote systems allow owners and managers to operate their facilities from offsite locations. And the automated systems can cut power bills by using sensors that detect where people are working and turning on the lights accordingly. As the people move throughout the building, the active lighting will follow.

“This is a way to make existing technology more cost efficient so that you are not wasting energy in an office building,” Clark says. “This is getting more widespread.”

And as more projects incorporate green technology, owners will take notice that the trend of sustainable design is as a durable as the buildings that use it.

“Sustainable design is here to stay,” Clark says. When he got his start in architecture in the mid-1970s, solar energy was the industry buzzword.

“That just evaporated,” he says. “The solar technology was just not as advanced or efficient as it should’ve been.” But he feels sustainable design will not go the way of early solar panels because the more passive elements, such as building materials, appropriate siding and building orientation, make sense for most projects.

Cordogan, Clark & Associates designed the updated highway oases in metropolitan Chicago.

“The tollway project is an interesting example of where architectural design enhanced a client’s ability to make money,” Clark says. The project started with Illinois State Toll Highway Authority soliciting RFPs to developers to redevelop a number of outdated oases. In return, the authority would lease the oases to the developer for 25 years before regaining control of the building. “The Tollway had an interest in a durable, high-quality building,” Clark says. “Something with life in it after the developer’s lease expired.” But the developer was building the facilities with its own money and was concerned about the cost. Cordogan had to create a design that satisfied both requirements.

They found a solution by examining the existing bridge, which was suggested for removal in the original RFP. When the company realized that the current bridge would still be functional with an updated oasis, they decided to save the bridge and push some pieces onto the retaining walls from the oases.

“We used the retaining walls for the foundations of opaque elements that were previously on the bridge,” Clark says. With the toilet cores and cooking equipment off the bridge, the company was able to use more glass to make the oases more transparent to drivers passing beneath. They become more inviting so that commuters can see individual retail kiosks in an open-air atmosphere with heightened space.

“By rethinking the RFP and developing a design that worked with existing elements, the developer and the Tollway both won,” Clark says. “That is a passive green technique.”

Traditionally, institutional and government buildings were the projects utilizing sustainable design and green technology, but the trend is moving into more mainstream projects. For example, Skokie, Illinois-based The Alter Group is developing Corridors IV, the first speculative office project to aim for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification in the Chicago suburbs, and MCG Architecture designed a LEED-certified Giant Eagle grocery store in Brunswick, Ohio.

But the major innovation in retail design that Lusk Harkin is seeing involves recycling of a different sort. “There is a trend to renovate and reuse existing retail that is specifically mall oriented,” Jim Harkin says. The company is working with malls that have dark anchors, and they are reconfiguring that space into something non-traditional for a mall. One of the most popular options is to expose the shoppers to sunlight by ripping the roof off of the space and converting it to lifestyle retail.

“We are creating hybrid malls, which have an indoor and outdoor component,” Harkin says. These lifestyle components are also serving as a space for community events such as concerts and seasonally themed performances.

Or the mall may lose its entire top through a de-malling process like Town & County in Dayton, Ohio. Lusk Harkin designed the plans for Casto to convert one of its smaller interior malls into a 300,000-square-foot town center concept, complete with open plazas and streetscapes. The project is due for completion in November 2006. But these vacant mall spaces are not only being re-imagined as retail.

Some old anchors are being converted to a two-story facility with office space above retail space. Or developers might ask that the space be redesigned for a non-traditional mall retailer such as The Home Depot or Target. An even more unique approach is to transform the empty space into multifamily residences.

“The idea is to create more of a mixed-use type of facility from the original mall concept,” says Mike Lusk, AIA, a principal with Lusk Harkin. “The United  States is over-retailed. The shift in the demographics and department store problems are creating a lot of issues. By taking different ideas and concepts, we can return the property to being a viable piece of real estate.”

Lusk Harkin is designing a 24-screen Rave Theater at Polaris Mall in Columbus, Ohio, that will feature 30,000 square feet of retail attached to the front of the building.

“The idea is that a theater has this empty, expansive wall and we are just filling that in,” Harkin says. “It is a mini-mall with a theater. We are really capturing real estate in a leasable area.”

And it is through innovative thinking and a budget-conscious mind frame that architects will continue to positively impact their clients’ bottom lines.

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