Sometimes it seems as though ‘going green’ is a bright and lively international movement happening everywhere except New England. While there is a lot of jabber and buzz around here about global warming and ‘sustainability’, New England isn’t exactly leading the green parade when it comes to buildings and development projects. Granted that the movement is probably only a handful of years out of its toddler stage, but out on the West Coast it seems to have grown up much faster. Most of the eco-brainiacs as well as the more visible and successful green efforts in the US0fA seem to have settled around San Francisco and in the Cascadian states of Washington and Oregon. Even the mid-west, which we often assume to be a cultural and design backwater, seems to be ahead of New England. Just look at Chicago; it has the Bethel Center, the Green Technology Center and Mayor Daly’s green-roofed City Hall.
Locally, instead of developing a truly green and sustainable plan for the city’s spaces and buildings, we’re squabbling about whether or not to save one of the world’s principal examples of brutalist architecture and planning, Boston City Hall, and its surrounding urban desert, a forlorn, featureless plaza. A ‘Hanging Gardens of Babylon’ approach might make City Hall a more acceptable place, or maybe we could make it into a mausoleum to hold the remains of ego-driven architects and short-sighted politicians. And perhaps the plaza could be transformed into a New England version of Paris’s Place des Vosges. Together with the Greenway it might create some additional urban jewelry, an Emerald bracelet, to go along with Olmstead’s original necklace. That way Boston could do the impossible; move forward and backward simultaneously.
You would think that New England, with its unmatched collection of colleges and universities, and its rich traditions of intellectual vigor, independence of thought and transcendental heritage, would be in the forefront of sustainable thinking and design. Maybe it is, in the classroom or in some studios but you don’t see much of it in the buildings or developments going up right now. Though it wouldn’t be fair to say that nothing is happening locally, so far, on the ground at least, there’s not a whole lot to see. Maybe there will be soon. Let’s hope so. There’s a lot of talent in residence around here and it would be gratifying to see some of it on display.
Usually it’s the politicians that do the following, but locally, they seem to be doing the leading. On the state level, Governor Patrick has declared his determination to make Massachusetts a leader in the field of sustainable design; and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative is already force to be reckoned with. On the municipal level, thanks to the efforts of Mayor Menino, Boston has the most comprehensive green building standards in the nation. Green building standards for public buildings or publicly funded projects are common in most major cities, but Boston is the first to impose these conditions on privately developed properties. Under these new guidelines, all new buildings projects of 50,000 square feet or more must meet requirements in at least 26 of about 70 areas of design and construction. The standards cover not only such things as the materials used and the energy efficiency of walls and glass, but also the disposal of waste. Developers will have to certify they have met the requirements, and city officials will confirm the builders' measures. Pointedly, Boston’s new standards do not require the buildings be certified under the LEED system. These building requirements, whose full name is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design [LEED], was created by an industry group, the US Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org/) is the most commonly used green building rating system in the world.
Boston's certification process will be simpler, though the environmental standards will be almost the same as the LEED list. Boston's list includes additional ways developers can choose to help qualify buildings for certification, including using cleaner diesel construction vehicles, recharging area groundwater, and establishing transportation plans for future building users. It remains to be seen how effective these new conditions will be and how vigorously they will be enforced. This arrangement could lead to some cozy conflicts of interest down the road. There is already one major potential shortfall in the new standards: they don’t address renovation projects.
As to what’s here already. Of the 32 Platinum (the highest award) LEED buildings in the country, 2 are in Boston area: Genzeme’s corporate headquarters in Cambridge, and the Artists for Humanity Epicenter in Boston, near the new Convention Center. Meanwhile, among the most active builders of major new architect-designed structures, namely our colleges and universities, none have yet opted for truly green building projects and so far their record has been disappointing. There have even been some exceptional opportunities blown. Witness, for example, Harvard’s banal, even downright ugly and energy-costly ‘One Western Avenue’. Ironically it sits right next to the Genzeme site. Gazing at this puce-colored box makes me long for a New England-hardy variety of kudzu.
And let’s not forget Boston’s most widely and recently hyped signature building, the ICA. It is woefully, even embarrassingly NG: Not-Green. Unlike Harvard’s B-School lego-block monstrosity though, it is certainly brightly and sparklingly pretty. There is also the doyen of Huntington Avenue, the Museum of Fine Arts. Though its emerging renovations and new additions will enhance the institution’s functionality there seems to have been little to no thought, investment, or interest in making any of the work particularly green or sustainable. Again though, it should be very pretty, but we won’t know for sure for at least a couple of years. Meanwhile, check out the MFA website for a virtual tour of the proposed project.
To be fair, there is much activity underway hereabouts that will blossom in the next few years. Both Harvard and MIT have instituted green initiatives on their respective campus and are increasingly assertive about sustainable practices in their day-today operations. You can check out their websites, www.harvard.edu/ and web.mit.edu/ for more information on what they are doing. Harvard is also planning for extensive and comprehensive green buildings and sustainability development on their proposed new Allston campus.
If there aren’t any high-profile projects available right now, how about some smaller ones? Although no one has made an actual survey, it’s probably safe to assume that there are thousands of acres of available space in the Boston area that, if appropriately developed, could move the Hub into a leadership position in the green movement: all those flat roofs.The majority of roofs may not be suitable for such projects, but many are. For example, Whole Foods is renovating their Fresh Pond store. They’ve expanded by several thousand square feet and the roof over their heads is pool table flat. While they’re throwing buckets of money at redoing the sales floor, why not do the roof too? By the way, while the renovation is going on, the temperature in the store seems to be cooled to somewhere in the 60’s. That can’t be cheap. And in the winter, with their 20’ high ceilings, they must be spending an impressive amount to heat the place, even with good air circulators. So why not invest in a green roof or some solar voltaic panels? Chances are they’d save somewhere between 30 and 40% on their current heating and cooling expenses. Maybe more importantly, they just might inspire others to follow their example and also live up to their own philosophy and mission statement. It’s too long to repeat here, so check out their site at www.wholefoodsmarket.com.
To sum up: Despite the arsenal of brainpower, star power and financial wherewithal in our region, our local design practitioners don’t seem to be on the forefront of shifting the design paradigm of architecture and planning. At least their efforts and their works are not readily apparent, and that’s a shame. It's also a loss for the region. I suspect there are many green projects on the drawing boards, or, more accurately, on the hard drives and in the memory caches of computers of many of the notable design firms in Cambridge and Boston. But I would wager that most of these are destined for places outside of New England. It’s too bad that all of their formidable energy, acumen, and talent is directed elsewhere in the world. Though they probably are really thinking globally, they’re just not acting, or encouraged to act, locally. We should urge these firms and those who retain their services to practice green art on their own turf. That way all of us would benefit from their work.
