Increasingly, the “green” or lower-impact building approach is becoming a high-demand sales feature. Municipalities are mandating green building certification for new public buildings, requiring green building checklists for new development, and offering fast-track permitting for green projects. Universities are building this way to boost fundraising and recruitment. Developers targeting the educated upper-middle class are going green to set apart their offerings from their competitors’.

But before writing checks for solar panels and composting toilets, developers seeking to distinguish their products with or without certification through the United States Green Building Council’s LEED® program (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) might first look to the easiest opportunity: the site and siting of their buildings.

Case in point: When developing his company’s 240,000-square-foot headquarters near Richmond (VA), Austin Ligon, president of innovative used-car retailer CarMax, decided the new building should be as environmentally low impact as possible and LEED certified. But water and energy costs are low in his region, so Ligon stipulated that the LEED credits should be earned with optimal design and conservation, and not so much by specifying technologies for water and energy self-sufficiency. For the CarMax site, the greening opportunities started with the site itself.

Conscious Design
Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (VHB), the site’s engineer, picked up at least eight LEED credits simply for site features. Working with the architect, ADD, Inc., they tailored the building’s footprint to the site, minimizing it without reducing building space. They maintained the site’s hydrology and forested look by disrupting the site as little as possible and reducing asphalt with strategically designed narrow roads. They designed around streams, ponds and trees—even occasionally splitting roads around them. Tree cutting was kept to a minimum. A four-level parking deck will minimize paved parking area.

Daylighting and energy-conserving aspects are designed into the building. Already-cleared spaces were used for buildings and roads. Ponds and wetlands were enhanced; in one instance, an existing ditch was transformed into a three-tiered cascading pond. Elevated walkways traverse steams, allowing workers to enjoy their natural surroundings as close to the pre-developed state as possible.

By relying on native plantings and keeping trees on the site, the company will cut its irrigation costs. Completion of the building is projected for early 2006. CarMax expects a payback on these efforts through lower operating costs.

The CarMax project should earn eight of 28 possible LEED credits for sustainable site and water-efficiency features (see sidebar for a list of all LEED credits for site features), including:
• Optimal erosion and sedimentation control
• Site selection: Footprint is small and services are kept to the side of the site
• Alternative transportation: Bike racks and dedicated parking spaces
• Reduced site disturbance
• Stormwater management

The team will also seek points for innovation through:
• Protecting wetlands through a conservation easement
• Exceeding open space requirements

Siting Au Naturel with LID
The Pinehills, a new mixed-use development in Plymouth (MA) is well known for its high-quality natural look and feel. When completed, The Pinehills will consist of more than 3,000 homes, 4 golf courses, community centers, a fire station, and a village center—and 80 percent preserved open space. Although not a LEED-certified development, the project nicely demonstrates water conservation, wastewater use, progressive planning, and historic preservation, and the preservation of existing natural site features. Its stormwater management strategy is low-impact development, or LID, a repertoire of engineering approaches and treatment techniques for managing stormwater runoff that is increasingly interesting to regulators.

Residents see deer drinking from forest ponds (what the engineer knows to be stormwater retention basins), an abundance of mature trees, and sidewalks that wind through the trees and boulders. The reputation of this village-like development is such that $400,000 condominiums recently gained $100,000 in value in one year.

Planning The Pinehills site started with assessing the site’s assets—notably, sandy soils, natural depressions, and significant distance to groundwater. The engineering team used existing infiltration capacities of the site, maintaining forested buffers, and channeling stormwater into natural vegetated areas over well-draining sand. Natural depressions—some 40 feet deep—on the site provided thirsty infiltration basins that quickly soak up stormwater.

Buildings were sited strategically to share driveways, preserve the natural depressions, and minimize tree cutting (the site was nearly covered with pine trees). While most residential developments take their names from their former site attributes, this one is true to its name. Roads were occasionally moved to save trees. Sidewalks—called “pedestrian ways” —wind around trees adjacent to the roads instead of closely paralleling them.

Costs for services on The Pinehills are on a par with other projects, while costs for stormwater infrastructure were significantly less than a conventional development.

As with CarMax, the result is a development that is naturally integrated into the site. Its ecological aspects get good press, further contributing to the feel-good factor.

The conscious site design and engineering that went into these developments may not be noticed by every observer—and that’s by design. These sites are notable for their “feel,” their natural look, and lack of programmed aspects and high-maintenance plantings. Today, that goes a long way to put a development ahead of the pack.

The rewards can be more reliable performance, less costly infrastructure, and a better look and feel that spell higher value.

Maintaining a site’s pre-development ecological features represents what’s sure to be the engineering and design standard of the future, and should be considered by all developers. Whether for LEED credits, LID, or just good design, it’s becoming a mainstream design approach for its opportunities for efficiencies, cost savings, preserved site assets, and good public reception.  SLDT