By: When the The Chronicle-Telegram, Elyria, Ohio, contacted for building a new production wing on its existing facility and renovating its old building, Forum Architects' Charles A. Rosati was determined to have the daily stand out as the first local paper to win an environmental stamp of approval.
"From the very, very beginning, we wanted this building to achieve LEED certification," Rosati says. "We also said we were not going to compromise the owner's budget, or disrupt the newspaper's processes." LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] is a rigorous list of voluntary standards established by the Green Building Council. It looks for everything from nearby building materials origin to nearby bus routes.
By next spring, the $10 million, 70,000-square-foot green project will be done, and the Green Building Council can add up its LEED points. It will earn them for being an existing setting, for being in an urban setting, and for the nearby services, says Forum's Tony Bandy-Zalatoris, lead project architect. Even parking was pared down, and gave hybrid cars spaces almost as good as those for handicapped drivers.
Also earning LEED points: heat from the press helps warm the building, and using highly reflective roofing material rather than standard black that absorbs the sun's heat and taxes air conditioning. Interior materials emit no volatile organic compounds.
The sun shines into the 30,000-square-foot packaging center through high-tech skylights equipped with diffuser lenses that throw light so efficiently, there's no need for artificial daytime lighting. The architects found and uncovered the old building's "sawtooth monitors" -- skylights jutting from the roof that characterized so many Rust Belt factories.
The contractor recycled 85% of waste from the existing structure's demolition. "When you keep all that ... from going to a landfill, obviously that has an impact," Rosati says.
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