?? Building blocks

Building blocks

Thanks to cooperation between government regulators and private contractors, Columbus is becoming a leader in building environmentally friendly structures. Houses, apartments and office towers built with Mother Nature in mind are popping up in all areas of town. Here's a look at a few of them.

—Chris DeVille and Brittany Kress

The Lazarus Building

JEFF HINKLEY PHOTO

The Lazarus Building

The Downtown building that was once Lazarus will be linked to the past as long as memories of the store's holiday shopping heyday persist. When Lazarus closed and the city of Columbus began converting the building into office space, the structure gained a link to the future as well.

Mayor Michael Coleman made the Lazarus building a focal point in his Get Green Columbus initiative.

"It's not often that a community, the city of Columbus, has the chance to take a million-square-foot building that's that old and bring it back to life as something that truly is more modern than almost anything in the city," said Mike Brown, Coleman's spokesman.

The LEED-certified renovation has been honored as one of the nation's most environmentally friendly projects by the National Association of Office and Industrial Properties and the U.S. Green Building Council.

Among the features are a 15,000-foot rooftop garden to improve air quality, a system that filters rainwater into toilets and condensers and an air- and water-economized heating and cooling system.

Brown said the saved energy costs will make extra expenses now a smart financial choice in the long run.

"Not only can you build green but you can rehab green," Brown said. "Green is viable."

Greenview Estates

Columbus unveiled its first all-green neighborhood last month off Woodland Avenue on the city's North Side.

Located on the former site of an apartment complex that Mayor Michael Coleman called "a place of blight, crime and drugs," the new Greenview Estates is instead a feather in the city's cap.

The mayor, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and several other elected officials attended the ceremony, which they each cited as a major step toward sustainable living in Columbus and nationwide. Brown even said Ohio is on its way to becoming "the Silicon Valley of alternative energy."

Greenview includes 30 homes built on 11 acres, ranging in price from $130,000 to $180,000. The homes come with 15-year, 100-percent tax abatement.

Besides homes built with numerous efficiency measures in place (a handbook from the ceremony highlights at least 27), the neighborhood includes a runoff pond to prevent flooding and prevent water contamination.

The City of Columbus, Sovereign Homes and MiraCit Development Corporation had a hand in developing Greenview.

Jeffrey Place

Living green shouldn't be impossible for middle-class homeowners to reach, developer Joe Recchie said about his philosophy on the under-construction Jeffrey Place project.

The project, a residential and commercial site in Italian Village, is the city's first Downtown subdivision in more than 50 years. It takes a compact approach to fitting 1,100 residential units as well as retail and green space on 41.5 acres formerly home to a mining equipment plant.

The entire development, with gardens atop carports and a Flexcar program, is shooting for platinum LEED certification, but one section is an especially shining example of green building. The 76 lofts and townhomes planned for the North Block will come standard with solar panels and geothermal heating and cooling systems. Recchie thinks pulling it off at such a low price is patentable.

Almost all of the North Block units, which start from $148,000 for lofts and $258,000 for townhomes, are spoken for.

Thanks to the North Block's modular design, units are being constructed off-site and put in place this fall, with construction wrapping up by winter.

Grange Insurance Audubon Center

The state's first urban Audubon center will be as earth-friendly as possible.

Visitors to the planned Grange Insurance Audubon Center at the Scioto River's Whittier Peninsula will be able to take in nature with less guilt.

The green center will eventually occupy a Scioto River site that was once used in industry. Currently, city Recreation and Parks buildings sit atop an old, uncontrolled landfill, said Heather Starck, the center's director, and getting the site ready for the center will take some effort.

Once constructed, the center will include a green roof, a passive solar setup for windows, a geothermal heat pump and bathrooms with low-flow technologies. Starck hopes it will reach silver LEED certification.

The center and its outdoor spaces, which are budgeted to cost $14.5 million, are still being designed and will likely be completed by spring 2009.

October 18th, 2007