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New Assurity building to be ‘green'
Story Discussion By the Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Monday, September 14, 2009 12:45 pm | (2) Comments
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What Assurity's new headquarters and parking garage will look like when complete. (The Clark Enersen Partners)
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Not only is Assurity Life Insurance Co. spending a lot of green on its new headquarters in Antelope Valley, but the project will be green as well.
Assurity says its new five-story, 175,000-square-foot headquarters will be the first privately owned major office building in Lincoln, and only the fourth in Nebraska, to achieve Gold-level certification standards of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system from the U.S. Green Building Council.
"Our vision for the Assurity Center reflects our strong commitment to the Lincoln community to construct a building that will add to our community's architecture and be a sustainable, environmentally friendly facility," said Assurity Chairman, President and CEO Tom Henning said in a statement. "We believe good architecture matters in the present and the future because it brings both practical and cultural benefits to people as individuals and to communities."
Among the building's green components will be:
Extensive use of windows with exterior sunshading and lightshelves that reduce reliance on artificial lighting.
Emphasis on use of recycled-content and regionally available materials, including limestone from within 500 miles of Lincoln for the principal exterior and a minimum of 75 percent of construction waste diverted from the landfill.
Water-conserving plumbing that will provide 33 percent water use savings over a typical office building.
Green roofs on portions of the building to reduce heating and cooling costs and provide stormwater benefits, as well as pervious paving surfaces to reduce runoff and allow absorption of stormwater into the subsoil.
Capture of excess rainwater through underground cisterns, bioswales and a rain garden for grounds irrigation and use of drought-tolerant, native and naturalized plantings to minimize the need for irrigation, reduce the impact of maintenance on the environment and create habitat within the city.
Assurity is holding a groundbreaking ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at 20th and Q streets to officially kick off the project.
Construction on the project will start this month, and the building should be ready for occupancy by late 2011, the company said.
The $53 million project includes a headquarters building, which has enough room for 500 employees, and a separate parking garage on about 4 acres of land.
Assurity plans to consolidate its operations and house its more than 400 employees there. Henning said the facility also will have space for other tenants.
Showing posts with label green roofs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label green roofs. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Green Roofs: Are They Worth the Expense?
May 19, 2009, 9:23 am
Green Roofs: Are They Worth the Expense?
By Kate Galbraith
Chicago Dept. of Environment
The green roof atop Chicago’s City Hall is blooming, but other cities think the concept is too costly.
Richard M. Daley, the mayor of Chicago, told a panel at the Harvard Club of New York on Monday that he aims to make his city the “most environmentally friendly city in the world.”
A key part of Mr. Daley’s vision involves “green roofs” — the idea of putting plants, and even a few trees, on top of buildings. Chicago already has more than 600 “green roofs,” the mayor said — including one over its City Hall, which even has a couple of beehives.
As well as giving workers from surrounding skyscrapers something pleasant to gaze at, green roofs help keep the city cool, and also filter stormwater so that it does not overwhelm drains.
New York has a few green roofs, but it has not prioritized them in the way that Chicago has (or Toronto, which is thinking of making green roofs mandatory for some new buildings).
The reason is cost, said Carter Strickland, a senior policy adviser in New York City’s long-range planning and sustainability office. “We found that street trees are more cost-effective than green roofs,” he told the panel.
New York City is also emphasizing “white” or “cool” roofs, with the ability to reflect rather than absorb the sun’s heat. Green roofs, Mr. Strickland said, might cost $25 to $30 a square foot; “cool” roof would cost “a fraction of that,” he added.
There are other impediments in New York — including a tough permitting process. Miquela Craytor, the executive director of Sustainable South Bronx, said that it took her organization two years to install a “green wall.”
And implementing Mayor Daley’s vision in New York, beehives and all, would face an even more fundamental hurdle, according to David Yassky, a New York City council member: “It’s illegal now in New York City to keep bees,” he said.
Mr. Yassky added that he hopes to change that through legislation
Green Roofs: Are They Worth the Expense?
By Kate Galbraith
Chicago Dept. of Environment
The green roof atop Chicago’s City Hall is blooming, but other cities think the concept is too costly.
Richard M. Daley, the mayor of Chicago, told a panel at the Harvard Club of New York on Monday that he aims to make his city the “most environmentally friendly city in the world.”
A key part of Mr. Daley’s vision involves “green roofs” — the idea of putting plants, and even a few trees, on top of buildings. Chicago already has more than 600 “green roofs,” the mayor said — including one over its City Hall, which even has a couple of beehives.
As well as giving workers from surrounding skyscrapers something pleasant to gaze at, green roofs help keep the city cool, and also filter stormwater so that it does not overwhelm drains.
New York has a few green roofs, but it has not prioritized them in the way that Chicago has (or Toronto, which is thinking of making green roofs mandatory for some new buildings).
The reason is cost, said Carter Strickland, a senior policy adviser in New York City’s long-range planning and sustainability office. “We found that street trees are more cost-effective than green roofs,” he told the panel.
New York City is also emphasizing “white” or “cool” roofs, with the ability to reflect rather than absorb the sun’s heat. Green roofs, Mr. Strickland said, might cost $25 to $30 a square foot; “cool” roof would cost “a fraction of that,” he added.
There are other impediments in New York — including a tough permitting process. Miquela Craytor, the executive director of Sustainable South Bronx, said that it took her organization two years to install a “green wall.”
And implementing Mayor Daley’s vision in New York, beehives and all, would face an even more fundamental hurdle, according to David Yassky, a New York City council member: “It’s illegal now in New York City to keep bees,” he said.
Mr. Yassky added that he hopes to change that through legislation
Monday, October 13, 2008
Green roofs
Dear EarthTalk: I was intrigued to hear that there were a number of ways one could modify or construct a roof on a house or office facility that would provide great environmental benefit. Can you enlighten?
-- Bill Teague, Menlo Park, Calif.
Most buildings are designed to shed rain, and as such are built with hard, impenetrable roofing surfaces. As a result, rainwater bounces off and collects as runoff, picking up impurities—including infectious bacteria from animal waste as well as harmful pesticides and fertilizers—on the way to municipal storm sewers, which in turn eventually empty out into local bodies of water.
Minimizing this run-off means that more impurities will remain in local soils where they can be broken down more easily into their constituent elements than if they are concentrated downstream. In order to achieve this goal, landscape architects have developed so-called “green roofs,” which utilize living plant matter and soil on top of a building in order to absorb, collect and reuse rainwater while preventing run-off. Many buildings employing green roofs are able to find abundant uses for the water they collect, from watering exterior plantings at ground level to flushing toilets inside.
According to Steven Peck of the Toronto-based non-profit Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, green roofs can play an important role in maintaining ecological integrity within otherwise paved over areas. “The roofscapes of our cities are the last urban frontier—from 15 percent to 35 percent of the total land area—and the green roof industry can turn these wasted spaces into a force for cleaner air, cleaner water, energy savings, cooling, beauty and recreation,” he says.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) encourages the creation of green roofs for mitigating the urban “heat island effect,” whereby temperatures in crowded cities can soar some 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher than in less developed areas nearby. Other benefits, says the EPA, include: providing amenity space for tenants (in effect replacing a yard or patio); reducing building heating and cooling costs due to the buffering effect of the plant matter and soil; filtering pollutants like carbon dioxide out of the air and heavy metals out of rainwater; and increasing bird habitat in otherwise built-up areas.
Beyond going all out to build a “living” green roof, certain inorganic materials can also make an existing roof greener. The non-profit Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC), for instance, suggests roofing surfaces that reflect the sun’s heat so as to reduce the urban heat island effect while improving residential energy efficiency. According to the group, “a cool roof reflects and emits the sun’s heat back to the sky.” Builders can check out CRRC’s website for a database of information on the radiative properties of various roofing surfaces so as to make the smartest choice for clients and the environment.
Another quality that makes certain roofs greener than others is how long they last. Metal roofs are known to be relatively maintenance free and last longer than shingles in most situations. Slate roofs also have an excellent reputation for lasting long, although getting work done on them can be expensive when they do need repairs. The Slate Roofing Contractors Association reports that sea green slates can last anywhere from one to two centuries, depending on where the slate is quarried and how well it’s eventually installed.
CONTACTS: Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, www.greenroofs.org; CRRC, www.coolroofs.org.
-- Bill Teague, Menlo Park, Calif.
Most buildings are designed to shed rain, and as such are built with hard, impenetrable roofing surfaces. As a result, rainwater bounces off and collects as runoff, picking up impurities—including infectious bacteria from animal waste as well as harmful pesticides and fertilizers—on the way to municipal storm sewers, which in turn eventually empty out into local bodies of water.
Minimizing this run-off means that more impurities will remain in local soils where they can be broken down more easily into their constituent elements than if they are concentrated downstream. In order to achieve this goal, landscape architects have developed so-called “green roofs,” which utilize living plant matter and soil on top of a building in order to absorb, collect and reuse rainwater while preventing run-off. Many buildings employing green roofs are able to find abundant uses for the water they collect, from watering exterior plantings at ground level to flushing toilets inside.
According to Steven Peck of the Toronto-based non-profit Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, green roofs can play an important role in maintaining ecological integrity within otherwise paved over areas. “The roofscapes of our cities are the last urban frontier—from 15 percent to 35 percent of the total land area—and the green roof industry can turn these wasted spaces into a force for cleaner air, cleaner water, energy savings, cooling, beauty and recreation,” he says.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) encourages the creation of green roofs for mitigating the urban “heat island effect,” whereby temperatures in crowded cities can soar some 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher than in less developed areas nearby. Other benefits, says the EPA, include: providing amenity space for tenants (in effect replacing a yard or patio); reducing building heating and cooling costs due to the buffering effect of the plant matter and soil; filtering pollutants like carbon dioxide out of the air and heavy metals out of rainwater; and increasing bird habitat in otherwise built-up areas.
Beyond going all out to build a “living” green roof, certain inorganic materials can also make an existing roof greener. The non-profit Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC), for instance, suggests roofing surfaces that reflect the sun’s heat so as to reduce the urban heat island effect while improving residential energy efficiency. According to the group, “a cool roof reflects and emits the sun’s heat back to the sky.” Builders can check out CRRC’s website for a database of information on the radiative properties of various roofing surfaces so as to make the smartest choice for clients and the environment.
Another quality that makes certain roofs greener than others is how long they last. Metal roofs are known to be relatively maintenance free and last longer than shingles in most situations. Slate roofs also have an excellent reputation for lasting long, although getting work done on them can be expensive when they do need repairs. The Slate Roofing Contractors Association reports that sea green slates can last anywhere from one to two centuries, depending on where the slate is quarried and how well it’s eventually installed.
CONTACTS: Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, www.greenroofs.org; CRRC, www.coolroofs.org.
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