Durability & Maintainability - Building with 100 Year Products

Historic preservation of buildings is both an interesting and timely topic of discussion in today’s design community. Potomac Valley Brick sponsored an event at the National Building Museum which brought together three great minds to speak on this topic last week. Carl Elefante, FAIA, LEED AP, Principal, Quinn Evans Architects, Rollin Stanley, AICP, Planning Director, Montgomery County, Maryland, and Audrey T. Tepper, Historical Architect, National Park Service all spoke about preserving buildings and communities in the green era.

Sustainable design practices present many challenges for today’s designers. Carl Elefante strongly believes that we can all benefit by enriching our understanding on the opportunities to renew and transform our communities, economy and culture. It is clear that sustainable design is transforming what, where, and how we build. “We have to get back to the way we were. We can design 100 year buildings,” said Elefante. He explained that our most energy efficient buildings were those built prior to 1920. This was when we built communities for people, not cars. This speaker truly engaged the audience in his presentation. “It survived people smarter than you, let it survive you!” Carl Elefante said this about tearing down buildings and walls. He continued to speak about the value in the existing building stock: economic value, cultural value, and environmental value. Elefante also urged the audience to “get into energy efficient retrofits, because this is where our market is headed.” Durability and maintainability is building with 100 year products, not products that last a decade. (As a true brickie, I love this!) He continued to tout about durability and maintainability, building with 100 year products not products that last a decade. And to me, this is simple and makes sense. Elefante closed his presentation with the following slide:

Sustainable Stewardship = Historical Preservation + Sustainable Design
RENEWAL & TRANSFORMATION

Rollin Stanley is passionate about his involvement in planning for urban growth through sustainable design. This was clear through the copious historic sites he discussed with the audience. His talk focused on the future of sustainable design as it relates to new and old buildings, and how historic preservation can lead to economic development. Stanley said that we can all benefit by educating ourselves about the value of preservation. We need to redevelop and design wonderful communities for people to live, work and play. One specific example cited by Stanley in his talk was about the revitalization of the historic city of St. Louis. This remarkable case study has the opportunity to be replicated in other cities. In addition to the economic opportunities presented through historic preservation, there are also many opportunities for tax credits. These tax credits have the potential to stimulate economic growth through the creation of housing and jobs. You can learn more about these programs at the National Park Service website

Audrey T. Tepper, the third and final speaker, discussed the inherent sustainable properties of historic buildings. These structures have a legacy. Historical materials can be very forgiving. Historic preservation means considering repairing, not replacing; retaining the character of the building when updating; and, understanding that new construction or additions to an existing historic structure must be compatible with the building. Tepper proceeded to show numerous examples of historic buildings whose character was completely compromised by the addition of solar “mohawk” panels, exterior insulation encapsulating the existing details and building character, and green roofs that need a haircut. “There should be a historic building under all that eco-bling,” exclaimed Audrey Tepper. Form needs to fit function, and we have to get back to the basics of what is truly sustainable. Tepper ended by stating, “Historic preservation is inherently green, and there is a lot of value to retaining the existing materials in a building.”

Throughout the discussions, the speakers referenced many credible sites. Here is a short list, for a complete list of reliable information click here.

http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/tax/ (National Park Service)
http://wbdg.org/ (The Whole Building Design Guide)
http://www.buildingscience.com/ (Building Science Corporation)
http://www.wufi-pro.com/ (WUFI-Software for calculating the coupled heat and moisture transfer in building components)
http://www.nps.gov/prsf/index.htm (National Park Service - Presidio)

One last note! We were thrilled to hear one of the speakers at the event mention Professor Alan Short, MA DipArch RIBA FRSA. Professor Short will be traveling to the National Building Museum on March 31, 2011 to be the keynote speaker for our 2nd Annual BrickStainable Awards Ceremony. We hope to see you there!

BrickStainable Jurors Speak at Greenbuild 2010

I never cease to enjoy Greenbuild. Even as it has expanded, the enthusiasm and breadth of expertise and investigation is enthralling. Those who have been in this field for a while may find many of the educational sessions to be too basic but, if one selects carefully, there is plenty of cutting edge work being presented. Two of the jurors from BrickStainable presented at the conference, as did I.

Vivian Loftness was a part of two sessions. One presented perspectives on the greening of college campuses. How is an institution’s commitment to greening itself manifest and how does it affect student life, academics and job opportunities in a green economy? Another panel that Vivian participated on addressed carbon footprint analysis for single family residences. This was part of the Residential Summit that took place at Greenbuild this year. This session focused on establishing the quantitative value of the carbon embodied (versus operational) in the single family house. This allows the design, including materials and systems selection, to better meet sustainability goals and more fully evaluate the life cycle impact of the project.

Bill Browning participated in a panel entitled “Mannahatta & The Mtigwaaki: Learning from Ecological and Indigenous History To Remake Our Cities.” Eric Sanderson’s book, “Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City” is a fascinating look at how the development of a City like New York has been affected by its natural history. Bill discussed a project of his own that was informed by this research and how that project has been able to take advantage of the discovery that is located on top of an historic, but long ago buried stream.

I participated in a panel discussion of two community health clinics that have achieved LEED NC Gold and LEED CI Platinum certifications. Serving Baltimore City’s homeless population and a distressed urban community, these LEED certified buildings contribute to the awareness of environmental health in these frequently marginalized communities.

There were many other fascinating sessions and over 1,000 exhibitors this year! The Brickstainable team has been actively involved and we hope to be able to present the contributions of BrickStainable to the sustainability discussion next year. Keep an eye on us and the great work of our competitors!

Masonry Materials Comprise 11 of 13 Wonders of the World!

Just out of curiosity, I thought I would find out what the Seven Wonders of the World were and of what materials they were made. Do you know? There are actually Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, of which only the Pyramids at Giza still exist, and a New Seven Wonders of the World, selected from sites and structures still in existence. Between the two lists, the Pyramids at Giza were on both so, two times seven only yields thirteen. Interestingly, of the thirteen structures, all were masonry except for two, the Colossus of Rhodes (from the original seven), which is reputed to have been Bronze, and Christ the Redeemer in Brazil (of the new seven) which is concrete. Of the ancient wonders, only one remains standing, the Pyramids at Giza. Except for the two non-masonry structures mentioned, all of the others are built of stone or brick. The two brick new wonders are the Great Wall of China and the Colosseum in Rome.

The Great Wall, except for the “guard houses” is primarily an elevated road to keep out the enemy and move troops and military supplies. Though occupant comfort was not a primary consideration, durability was. And, endure it has. Even through its degradation, many of the bricks remained. Now, having received its second, at least, restoration, the Great Wall continues to impress as much by virtue of the mere chutzpah that it took to construct it as by its technical accomplishment.

The Colosseum, though an open structure, was built to provide a modicum of human comfort while attending gladiatorial exhibitions. There has been much speculation about the canvas awnings at the upper level that provided shelter from the sun but, these no longer exist. When you are there today, the shade of the arched concourses and the coolness of the brick still provide considerable relief from the Italian sun.

Here are the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the New 7 Wonders of the World.

7 Wonders of the Ancient World
Pyramids at Giza
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Temple of Artemis
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
Colossus of Rhodes
Lighthouse at Alexandria

New 7 Wonders of the World
Pyramids at Giza
Machu Picchu
Chichen Itza
The Colosseum
Great Wall of China
Taj Mahal
Christ the Redeemer

There were many other contenders when the New list of Wonders of the World was created. Selected for features such as beauty and cultural value, it is notable that the majority of them are masonry structures.