A focus on building clean
KERRY GOLD From Friday's Globe and Mail January 30, 2009 at 1:34 PM EST Developer Michael Knight sits inside the bright white walls and buffed concrete interior of a suite in his condo development in North Vancouver, and says, with no small amount of pride, "This is the new home smell." There is a pause around the table. "Nothing," he says.
There is a scented candle burning somewhere in the 1,250-square-foot, two-bedroom display unit that is listed at $775,000, but Mr. Knight, general manager of Streamline Properties Inc., has a point. There is no detectable trace of the unhealthy new-home fumes — known as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs — that are emitted from conventional new flooring, paints, wood products and fabrics.
The four-storey Brook condo development, located at 650 Evergreen Pl. in the sloping neighbourhood of the North Shore, is fume free. And so it should be. It's difficult to believe that not so long ago a "new-home smell" and "new-car smell" — as in the smell of chemicals — were considered good things. Times have changed, and developers such as Streamline Properties are attempting to be at the forefront of a movement for energy-efficient housing that is stylish and highly functional, as well as for cleaner air and water in the environment generally.
The company is touting the Brook as the greenest standalone condo development in Canada. Once it is finished, it will boast the relatively rare platinum certification from the LEED program. (Under the decade-old Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design plan, buildings are rated on a point system and given either a basic certification, or the higher designations of silver, gold or platinum.) Mr. Knight and Streamline Properties president Jeff Wiegel say they have gone the extra mile with the 24-unit Brook, using the very latest technologies and materials.
"We are very proud that in Canada, Vancouver has this building," Mr. Wiegel says.
They have kept a list of 50 "firsts," techniques that have never been used in a condo development before.
"We have taken everything we could possibly think of in the building process and the living-in-the-unit process, and we ended up with a collective building that on its own is extremely efficient and very much proving how to do green development," Mr. Knight says.
In order to obtain its LEED certification, the company had to work with a consultant who oversaw the design process, the materials and the construction process. So far, only the ground-floor display suite is finished.
The LEED consultant for the project is Ted Roberts, who liked the Brook development enough that he invested in it. Mr. Roberts, who also worked on Victoria's platinum-certified Dockside Green, says his investment in the project should not be seen as a conflict. The LEED certification is intended as a guideline, he explains, and not an absolute.
"If you wanted to cheat the system, you could, but there's an honour system involved," he says. "So it's not a conflict. Having a vested stake gives you even more drive to make it happen."
Mr. Roberts says that the Brook has a self-contained infrastructure that's similar to the one at the larger and much-lauded Dockside Green, a mixed-use complex developed by Vancity and Windmill West. Heating, hot water and water-recycling systems are all contained within the small building for optimal efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
The Brook boasts solar-panel heated water, geothermal radiant floors for heating and cooling, and a separate heat-recovery and air-ventilation system for each unit. The end result, according to Mr. Knight, is individual condo units whose total annual energy usage will equal what it takes to run a hairdryer — which consistently draws five amps — non-stop for a year. (The building is backed up by a $20,000 generator because power outages are common on the North Shore.) The Streamline Properties claims that the building's energy requirement will be 70 per cent less than that for a conventional structure of a similar size.
On a recent tour of the building, Mr. Knight and Mr. Wiegel showed off details that will go unnoticed once the interior walls are put up. For example, hollow channels — or troughs — running through the concrete floors where the base of each wall sits will eliminate heat transfer within the suite, and provide an excellent sound barrier. "It's not until you build [a] building, and verify and collect the data from the trades and designers, that you know" if you've met your goal, Mr. Knight observes. "Because so may things on any project get lost under a schedule crunch — or missed."
He notes that it's largely up to developers and builders to ensure energy-efficiency, adding that a building can be "well-qualified" under the LEED program — having many "green" components — but still be fairly inefficient.
The LEED process is not without its critics, Mr. Roberts concedes.
"There are always critics … like [with] anything else in the world. They don't realize that [LEED is] a tool, a guide. If a credit or requirement doesn't make sense to your project, don't do it. It's a point-based system and it's up to you, the design team, to pick and choose how you want to apply it." One of the challenges of building a LEED-certified building is meeting the extra cost involved.
"A LEED building, typically, is a better quality building, and therefore to build a better quality building it will cost a little more," says Mr. Roberts. Streamline Properties reduced costs where it could. It used fixtures that weren't high-end, for example. Mr. Knight points to $20 puck lights under the vanity cabinet; they operate as night lights and look unique but cost little.
Environmental considerations aside, the company is in the business of selling condos, and the Brook project had to make economic sense.
"Unless [the technologies] pay for themselves within 10 years, we can't include it in the building — it's not worth it," Mr. Knight says.
"You still have to sell it to make a profit — otherwise you don't get to do this very many times," he adds, laughing.
"So you equate cost versus the benefit. This is not a fancy building. It's designed to be a very nice living space and we think the people will love living here.
"It doesn't mean you give up luxury or creature comforts. It just means you are better in the way you use the resources to create them. That's the mindset. You start shifting, and everything falls in line with that." Special to The Globe and Mail Comments:
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