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Greensburg’s City Council made official Monday night its intention of having the first LEED Platinum building in Kansas finished and open for business by mid-summer by passing a resolution requiring municipal structures to be constructed to those standards (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).
That building—a small business incubator that will house as many as 15 businesses—is being built by the City with a $2 million grant from USDA Rural Development on the first block of south Main.
Platinum is the highest of four levels of energy and environmental efficiency established in 2000 by the U.S. Green Building Council. Whether a building qualifies for the certified (lowest) level, rather than silver, gold or platinum, depends on the points earned in design in the areas of site location, water and energy efficiency, material and resource usage, indoor environmental quality and design innovation.
City Administrator Steve Hewitt has been a strong proponent of the resolution, receiving support for its adoption from BNIM Architects, the firm designing Greensburg’s Master Plan as well as the new USD 422 school campus. BNIM planner Steve Hardy, in fact, had left the council a model resolution for their consideration at the December 12 City Work Session.
With the resolution’s adoption, the City will look to likewise erect its City Hall and Big Well gift shop and tourism center as LEED Platinum structures.
Hewitt urged those present at Monday evening’s meeting to appreciate the historical significance of the resolution’s approval, saying, “We need to realize this is unprecedented, because there’s no City that’s passed a platinum resolution. Some gold, yes, but not platinum. This is groundbreaking stuff.” His comments were met with applause.
While Hewitt and Hardy have expressed hope the City’s precedent setting policy will encourage other concerns in the community to follow suit, it remains to be seen if building green will be taken up to a significant degree by those building commercially and residentially.
“I’d hope every private concern would take a second look at building stronger structures when they go to build,” Hewitt said. “I’d hope they’d at least consider building certified.”
One such concern doing so is Manske and Associates of Wichita, currently constructing low-income rental townhomes for seniors and families on the site of the former Greensburg High School. “I’m pleased Manske is building those at LEED certified,” Hewitt said.
As for the future school facilities for USD 422, Superintendent Darin Headrick indicated Wednesday morning he’s optimistic the district’s new campus will match the standards set by the City.
“That (building the school to LEED Platinum specifications) is a definite goal of ours,” Headrick said. “We want our schools to be an educational facility not just for what happens in the classroom, but also for the facility itself.
“We want everyone that walks into our facility to look at the materials used and the design and ask questions that will lead them to be educated as to how they can pursue a green design.”
Asked if achieving LEED Platinum in Greensburg’s new school could serve as a selling point for families considering a future move to the community, Headrick acknowledged as much.
“We can make sure our school and its design is one of the unique reasons as to why people would want to live here, so in that sense, yeah, having a LEED Platinum facility could be a selling point.”
Though design of the new school is still in preliminary stages, Headrick said groundbreaking for the new facility is still set to take place by May 4, the one-year anniversary of the tornado that leveled the town and school. He said he expects the new school to be ready for use some time between August of 2009 and the following January.
Though the County intends to shoot for some level of LEED qualification in its rebuilding efforts, it remains to be seen what end result will eventually be achieved.
“I think we should go as high as we can (on the LEED ladder),” Kiowa County Commissioner Gene West said during a December 17 meeting with the Wichita architectural firm MVP that is designing the remodeling of the damaged, but still standing courthouse.
“I think silver is doable, maybe gold on the courthouse, but platinum isn’t,” he continued.
A major part of the reason for the lowered expectations on West’s part is the added, initial cost of building to LEED levels. While Hardy recently told city council the latest data indicates up front construction cost increases of only .66, 1.9, 2.2 and 6.8 percent for the four LEED levels of certified, silver, gold and platinum, respectively, Mark McCluggage (of MVP) unveiled higher numbers for county commissioners at Monday’s meeting.
McCluggage estimated an increase of “between $50,000 to $100,000” for remodeling the courthouse at a certified level on a project that’s listed at a $2.3 million base. He added the corresponding hike ranges for the silver, gold and platinum levels were $100,00 to $140,000; $175,000 to $235,000; and $600,000 to $700,000, respectively.
Taking the high end of each of the four ranges cited by McCluggage, that works out to up front increases in building expense of 4.3 percent for certified, 6.1 percent for silver, 10 percent for gold and a full 30 percent for platinum.
MVP is also handling the design for the incubator building, with input from BNIM on sustainability design and construction. While BNIM has experience in designing LEED structures, this will be MVP’s first time doing so.
Greensburg’s City Council made official Monday night its intention of having the first LEED Platinum building in Kansas finished and open for business by mid-summer by passing a resolution requiring municipal structures to be constructed to those standards (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).
That building—a small business incubator that will house as many as 15 businesses—is being built by the City with a $2 million grant from USDA Rural Development on the first block of south Main.
Platinum is the highest of four levels of energy and environmental efficiency established in 2000 by the U.S. Green Building Council. Whether a building qualifies for the certified (lowest) level, rather than silver, gold or platinum, depends on the points earned in design in the areas of site location, water and energy efficiency, material and resource usage, indoor environmental quality and design innovation.
City Administrator Steve Hewitt has been a strong proponent of the resolution, receiving support for its adoption from BNIM Architects, the firm designing Greensburg’s Master Plan as well as the new USD 422 school campus. BNIM planner Steve Hardy, in fact, had left the council a model resolution for their consideration at the December 12 City Work Session.
With the resolution’s adoption, the City will look to likewise erect its City Hall and Big Well gift shop and tourism center as LEED Platinum structures.
Hewitt urged those present at Monday evening’s meeting to appreciate the historical significance of the resolution’s approval, saying, “We need to realize this is unprecedented, because there’s no City that’s passed a platinum resolution. Some gold, yes, but not platinum. This is groundbreaking stuff.” His comments were met with applause.
While Hewitt and Hardy have expressed hope the City’s precedent setting policy will encourage other concerns in the community to follow suit, it remains to be seen if building green will be taken up to a significant degree by those building commercially and residentially.
“I’d hope every private concern would take a second look at building stronger structures when they go to build,” Hewitt said. “I’d hope they’d at least consider building certified.”
One such concern doing so is Manske and Associates of Wichita, currently constructing low-income rental townhomes for seniors and families on the site of the former Greensburg High School. “I’m pleased Manske is building those at LEED certified,” Hewitt said.
As for the future school facilities for USD 422, Superintendent Darin Headrick indicated Wednesday morning he’s optimistic the district’s new campus will match the standards set by the City.
“That (building the school to LEED Platinum specifications) is a definite goal of ours,” Headrick said. “We want our schools to be an educational facility not just for what happens in the classroom, but also for the facility itself.
“We want everyone that walks into our facility to look at the materials used and the design and ask questions that will lead them to be educated as to how they can pursue a green design.”
Asked if achieving LEED Platinum in Greensburg’s new school could serve as a selling point for families considering a future move to the community, Headrick acknowledged as much.
“We can make sure our school and its design is one of the unique reasons as to why people would want to live here, so in that sense, yeah, having a LEED Platinum facility could be a selling point.”
Though design of the new school is still in preliminary stages, Headrick said groundbreaking for the new facility is still set to take place by May 4, the one-year anniversary of the tornado that leveled the town and school. He said he expects the new school to be ready for use some time between August of 2009 and the following January.
Though the County intends to shoot for some level of LEED qualification in its rebuilding efforts, it remains to be seen what end result will eventually be achieved.
“I think we should go as high as we can (on the LEED ladder),” Kiowa County Commissioner Gene West said during a December 17 meeting with the Wichita architectural firm MVP that is designing the remodeling of the damaged, but still standing courthouse.
“I think silver is doable, maybe gold on the courthouse, but platinum isn’t,” he continued.
A major part of the reason for the lowered expectations on West’s part is the added, initial cost of building to LEED levels. While Hardy recently told city council the latest data indicates up front construction cost increases of only .66, 1.9, 2.2 and 6.8 percent for the four LEED levels of certified, silver, gold and platinum, respectively, Mark McCluggage (of MVP) unveiled higher numbers for county commissioners at Monday’s meeting.
McCluggage estimated an increase of “between $50,000 to $100,000” for remodeling the courthouse at a certified level on a project that’s listed at a $2.3 million base. He added the corresponding hike ranges for the silver, gold and platinum levels were $100,00 to $140,000; $175,000 to $235,000; and $600,000 to $700,000, respectively.
Taking the high end of each of the four ranges cited by McCluggage, that works out to up front increases in building expense of 4.3 percent for certified, 6.1 percent for silver, 10 percent for gold and a full 30 percent for platinum.
MVP is also handling the design for the incubator building, with input from BNIM on sustainability design and construction. While BNIM has experience in designing LEED structures, this will be MVP’s first time doing so.
