Naturally Green
As the Green Pavilion celebrates its second year at Chicago’s Home Expo Show, sustainability is gaining popularity in everything from public projects to suburban residences and downtown condos
by Angela Caputo
On the barren lot that was once the gateway to the now-shuttered Cabrini Green public housing complex a new chapter of Chicago history is emerging. The plot in the up-and-coming Near North community has become a staging ground for one of the most ambitious green development projects in the city.
As the five-story concrete, glass and steel building designed by world-renowned architect Helmut Jahn comes to life over the next year, developers hope the ecological design will send the message that green design can be accessible to everyone.
“One of the things we’re trying to do is set an example,” said Lakefront Supportive Housing President and ceo Jean Butzen. Through the 96-unit building, the nonprofit low-income housing development organization is leading the way.
Jahn’s cutting-edge plan incorporates roof top wind turbines, estimated to cut energy costs by up to 20 percent annually, and rooftop solar paneling.
In line with the single-room occupancy design, which capitalizes on every inch of space, natural resources will be used to the fullest, right down to watering the landscaping.
A water-basin system to collect rainwater for irrigating the grounds is among the innovative green features, which will most likely be a first for the building’s low-income tenants.
After finishing a multi-family project with green features on the South Side last year, Butzen said she has seen firsthand the physical and economic benefits of incorporating natural materials and resources. And now she is hooked.
“It’s like thermopane windows, you wouldn’t even think twice about not using them,” she said.
A push by the city, which is helping to subsidize the $11 million project, is helping to send the message that the time for going green is now.
It’s no longer just for folks holing up in a sod home in the wilderness or the very rich, who can afford the latest in technology. Green has gone mainstream and urban.
Incorporating green technology to generate home energy and operate public buildings is taking off in other countries, including Germany and Japan.
Many credit Mayor Richard M. Daley for driving innovative design in Chicago so that it can claim a new nickname: Green City USA. In recent years, pilot programs launched by the city show residents just how attainable going green is.
“It opens people’s eyes to the possibility of things in front of them,” Department of Housing spokeswoman Molly Sullivan said.
Green building is even making headway in solidly working class areas. The Hermosa neighborhood, located just west of Logan Square, is the site of the Factor 10 House, so named because the architect’s aim was to reduce the life cycle environmental impacts by a factor of 10 compared to typical American new home construction home.
Factor 10 House was designed by Marc L’Italien of Esherick Homsey Dodge and Davis (EHDD Architecture). The San-Francisco based firm won two Honor Awards in the 2004 Design Excellence Awards competition sponsored by the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
It was one of five homes built as part of the City of Chicago’s “Green Homes for Chicago” pilot project, launched in 2000. The city solicited nationwide entries from architects for designs that were affordable, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, garnering 73 proposals. Five were selected and eventually built on land donated by the city, which also helped subsidize construction. Two Hermosa neighborhood lots were selected along with three in the Englewood neighborhood on the city’s South Side.
Once the Factor 10 home was built, it became part of the Affordable Homes for Chicago program and a first-time buyer was able to purchase the 1,200 square foot home for $145,000.
The Chicago Center for Green Technology, 445 N. Sacramento Blvd., is one of the city’s successful green transition stories. In the mid 1990s, the 17-acre site was covered in construction debris and was considered a “brownfield.” It took millions of dollars and the efforts of a team of architects, led by Doug Farr of Farr Associates, to transform it into a resource for green technology and building.
Farr said he started down the green road because he was shaken by the geopolitics of the ’80s. He grew up in Detroit and saw,” [the city] was failing, the country was failing. Everything pointed to the fact that we needed to do something better,” he said. Decades later, the architect-turned-visionary said he still sees the country heading down a destructive path, but it’s not too late to turn things around. “Not only locally and regionally, but nationally and globally [green development] is better, and it’s essential,” Farr said.
Green Home Expo Pavilion
The annual Home Exposition Show April 22-24 at McCormick Place. A green pavilion will showcase green features that people can easily incorporate into their homes. Models of eco-friendly rooms and products will be on display.
“We can have these resources without destroying the environment,” said Barry Bursak, a cutting-edge furniture guru-turned-ardent environmentalist. This is the second year that Bursak has organized and coordinated the green pavilion at the Home Expo.
At the Green Pavilion people will be able to learn about companies that handle everything from environmental building products, energy efficiency and home furnishings to renewable energy systems and home financing for energy upgrades.
The pavilion will also highlight sustainable builders and architects, as well as interior designers. There will be a model home display of sustainable and healthy furnishings, and speakers every hour on a variety of topics including green home building, edible landscaping, healthy interiors and solar energy. Further information about the show can be found at www.chicagolandhomeexpo.com.
As more and more homeowners go green, obtaining the requisite materials is becoming increasingly less complicated and expensive, designers said.
And the idea is catching on.
In a South Loop storefront, developer Robby Frankel has poster-sized schemes of condo buildings where eco-friendly features, such as high-efficiency furnaces and chemical-free finishes, are standard. Within three months, his first green project, a 40-unit, four-story brick building on the 1900 block of South Michigan Ave., was sold out.
“People really want this,” Frankel said of his largely first-time home-owning clientele. “They get really excited when they see it. It’s like icing on the cake, it’s environmentally friendly and creates a healthier living [space].”
Frankel decided to launch a second building with green-friendly features, bringing an additional 100 units of progressive design to the community.
Creating environmentally conscious homes may seem like a novelty now, said UIC professor Bill Becker, of the College of Art and Architecture. But it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a necessity, he said.
To promote his vision for sustainable design, Becker created the wind-turbine system that will power the lakefront development.
Sustainable Design
One of the region’s leading green designers, Evanston-based architect Nathan Kipnis, got his first taste for sustainable design decades ago, while scribbling away at drafting tables in college. In 2000, Kipnis made the shortlist among 73 applicants who submitted blueprints for five sustainable homes to be built under the New Homes for Chicago Program. The 14-year-old initiative is designed to help middle-income families struggling to buy homes.
As if creating an innovative urban home with solidarity to nature wasn’t challenge enough, Kipnis had to do it with $115,000.
The two-story, three-bedroom, two-bathroom recycled-brick house in the South Side’s Englewood neighborhood is a testament to possibility. It took a lot of creativity to make it happen, Kipnis added.
But Kipnis kept his focus. “Just because we’re doing green design, there is no excuse for doing bad design,” he said.
As the most important feature in a green home is energy efficiency, Kipnis said, installing an Energy Star rated furnace was his biggest spending priority. Although the house runs on a traditional heating and cooling system, it consumes far less natural gas than the typical house its size — costing roughly $1,000 per year to operate.
Kipnis also worked as an energy consultant on another city program awash in green for a year, the Green Bungalow Initiative.
Four bungalows on the 6400 block of South Fairfield Avenue were picked for gutting or rehabbing in 2003. All eventually met federal energy efficiency standards and succeeded in maximizing under-utilized space.
Throughout the homes, averaging 1,500 square feet, popular green features were used: carpeting from recycled plastic materials, low-volatile organic (voc) compound paints and stains, green rooftops and outside garden areas.
Low-E coated windowpanes, high-quality furnaces and blown rock wool for insulation made the difference in energy efficiency, Kipnis said.
Costs beyond standard equipment ranged between $3,400 and $13,000, according to a Chicago Department of Environment study. Those additional costs should be regained in five to 12 years through lower heating and cooling bills.
The model homes demonstrate to Chicagoans, and the nation, that efficient homes are both innovative and sensible, Kipnis said.
You Can, Too
“A misconception is that green costs more,” said Laureen Blissard of the Chicago Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, a national advocacy organization.
Costs do typically run a little more, experts concede — 5 to 10 percent beyond comparable initiatives, from flooring to heating systems. The key to getting the most for your money in a total rehab or new home is bringing a design team together and finishing the plan before contracting out the work.
“The technologies are all out there but the trick is to integrate them from the beginning,” Kipnis said. “Not only to save money, but to have a better design, a better home.”
Movement Spreads to Suburbs
Chicago-based architect Lois Vitt Sale and her family are clearing the dust and unpacking after months of living in upheaval while putting an addition on their Downers Grove home.
Not wanting to leave her increasingly cramped three-bedroom, 1,600 square-foot home, they decided to build up, doubling the space, expanding into a five-bedroom, 3-bath home.
Everything fell into place fairly easily, according to Sale, with a couple of exceptions: her two young sons are still trying to figure out the dual flush toilets, and her neighbors seem a little bit miffed by the flowers on her rooftop garden.
The on-demand hot water heater, a high-efficiency furnace, new windows and ceiling fans in every room have already shown some returns, and the family has left its “energy hog” days behind. Despite doubling the house size, the first heating bill was up only 30 percent.
Not all of the choices were easy, Sale said. Financial compromises and a commitment to minimizing construction waste helped to make some decisions for her.
Instead of new windows, for example, Sale reused old vinyl ones, taken from other parts of the home. She made up for the concession with some little extras, including a rain-barrel system that captures rainwater for yard work.
Natural decorating materials such as carpet tiles, made in part from corn, run throughout the home, and a biopolymer insulator, made of processed soybean, is tucked away behind the walls.
Family members hope to leave some of their allergy problems behind with the memories of the old house. “Picking the right paints, materials and air flow is really important to keep them healthier,” Sale said.
Start Small to Make It Happen
For many, the hardest part of going green is getting started.
Guidelines for green residential development from the U.S. Green Buildings Council are available to help individuals and developers.
The advocacy group developed similar guidelines for commercial projects. Criteria for water efficiency, energy, materials and indoor environmental quality are measured through Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (leed) standards.
By accumulating points for landscaping, water management, renewable energy and building materials, developers can see how green their buildings really are.
Going green doesn’t have to be done all at once. Wisconsin-based interior designer Lyn Falk said her clients often start small. Many people work through her five-year-old business, Solterra Studios, to remodel a kitchen or a living room.
“Once people get their feet wet, they realize it’s accessible,” Falk said.
Most of Falk’s clients are first-timers when it comes to installing “trendy” bamboo or resilient recycled rubber flooring. But they quickly see that projects can be as affordable or extravagant as they want.
Bamboo flooring, which is as durable as oak but is a sustainable resource that replenishes up to five times faster, typically costs $10 per square foot. Falk said it’s the “fastest way to change the look of a room.” A layer of toxin-free voc paint costs between $8 and $10 more a gallon than its chemical-laden counterparts, but the health benefits are priceless, especially to people who have chemical sensitivities.
Projects, whether installing a heating system or painting a room, typically run 5 to 10 percent more than the old-fashioned way.
“You can’t put a price on your health,” Falk said. “And if you use healthier materials you’re going to stay healthier.”
And so will the environment.
For architect Kipnis, geopolitics is an important factor that drives his designs. “When people look at this they have to look at the big picture,” he said. “All you have to do is open the newspaper and on page one, page two, and you’ll see a lot of reasons why.”
And there are other benefits as well. After living for years in a green home, Becker said, he feels like “a better planetary citizen.”
“It tunes you back in,” he said. “It brings you out of the urban streetscape and reconnects you with nature.”
Even if you’re living in the middle of an urban area.
Angela Caputo is a Chicago-area reporter and writer.
