Building ‘green’

By MELANIE D. HAYES

April 07, 2006 09:49 pm

— With an ever-growing concern for energy costs, natural resource consumption and wear and tear on our environment, an Anderson architect is trying to help out with environmentally friendly qualities in his designs.
Mike Montgomery, of K.R. Montgomery and Associates Architecture and Interior Design in Anderson, is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified professional. LEED is part of the U.S. Green Building Council.
“The amount of energy and fuel products consumed by buildings is staggering,” Montgomery said. “If we can do better at making efficient, better places to live we will reduce the impact on our environment.
“I have seen how us becoming a ‘green’ society will be better for us and our firm can play a role in that happening,” he said. “We are pursuing becoming a ‘green’ accredited firm.”
In Indiana there are 150 LEED certified professionals, with half of them being architects, and the rest engineers and contractors. Montgomery is the only one in Anderson.
The change toward environmentally friendly buildings is growing, but didn’t come overnight, he said.
“It started in the mid-70s after the first oil embargo. Because of the political situation and long lines at the gas pumps a 55 mph limit was imposed to reduce consumption of foreign oil,” Montgomery said.
A concern grew from oil consumption and businesses began building solar powered and underground facilities to reduce energy consumption, he said.
“But some buildings were not nice to be in,” Montgomery said. “There was no fresh air, no windows. They were not good places for people to work in.”
What evolved from this concern was the U.S. Green Building Council worked in the early 1990s to develop a set of standards which became the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It started catching on more than it had in the 1980s because strategies were set and rated on a scale.
The desire to work under LEED standards has grown, but has yet to really become well-known.
“In the early ’80s, the Americans with Disabilities Act came out and people complained that (handicap accessible designs) would make buildings cost more,” Montgomery said. “Twenty years later, now it’s just a way we design buildings. It’s required, part of the code.
“Eventually this will be same way,” he said of LEED structures. “People are complaining now that it will cost more, but they are really saying ‘I don’t want to change.’ They are used to doing things a certain way. We will look back 20 years from now and say this was one of the greatest things we did.”
Two local buildings that K.R. Montgomery and Associates designed with environmentally friendly qualities are the Eastside Elementary School and the additions and renovations to the Pendleton Community Library.
Eastside Elementary School was completed in the fall of 2005 and has several LEED aspects.
“It has natural daylight, has fresh air. Those types of things are good ideas,” Montgomery said. “There is natural daylight going into almost all interior rooms, by use of interior glass. Light goes from the outside through glass walls to inside rooms.
“The air conditioning and heat are on a recovery wheel,” he said. “Commercial buildings, as opposed to homes, are required to bring in some fresh air so it does not become stale. You then have to let the older air back out.”
Heat and money spent to heat the air is wasted when the older air is expelled.
“If you can get the heat out of it before it goes out you save money,” Montgomery explained. “As the air blows out it goes through a wheel. New air coming in is pre-heated, reusing heat rather than losing all of it.”
The additions and renovations to the Pendleton Community Library will be finished in 2007.
“That will have geothermal heating and cooling system on the addition,” Montgomery said. “It takes the heat out of ground and takes the cooling out of ground as opposed to burning gas. There is also natural daylight into virtually all the rooms and many materials have a high percentage of recycled content.”
In the last year, Montgomery and his associates have made it a policy to always bring up LEED qualities with clients so they can decide if they would like to build under that design.
“Not everybody will be interested,” he said, “but we view it as a public education thing that we need to do. The more we talk about it, the more it’s on their conscious. If we keep pushing it, it will be part of life, like ADA is now.”
There are two additional costs for clients who want to build under this design. But although “green” building costs more upfront, money is saved over the lifetime of the building through lower energy costs.
“Equipment and slightly more expensive materials are estimated at 1 to 3 percent premium over normal construction,” Montgomery said. “The other cost is if they’d like it to be LEED certified. It costs to apply to the U.S Green Building Council. It takes time and time is money with the paperwork. It can cost $15,000 to $25,000.”
Some places, like Purdue University, are following LEED standards but are not having it certified because of the extra paper work, he said.
“Instead they are using it as a moral compass — good for the environment, good for our state.”
Benefits include “the knowledge that they are doing their part in helping our long-term environment and reducing consumption of natural resources,” Montgomery said. “They have designed buildings that over the long haul are more economical for energy rates. People will like them more because they are nicer places to live and work.”

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