Green Buildings Are a Growing Trend

By Ambika Behal



Michael Furbish and Heather Bathon live in a home made of straw bales in Pasadena. The Village Crest Retail Office Center in Ellicott City has been built mostly from recycled materials without the use of any wood on a site with native plants that won't need much water or care.

Village Crest's builders, Old Town Construction, is also working on Waverly Gardens, 102 apartments for seniors that will be "environmentally friendly" and "energy saving."

From these projects to the new Maryland Department of Transportation headquarters near BWI and two new office buildings at the Arundel Mills Corporate Park, builders and developers are turning to "green building" design to spare the environment, save on long-term energy costs, and in some cases, earn state and federal tax breaks.

"Environmental design is a holistic design approach to facilities," said Sean McGuire, program coordinator for the Green Building Network in Maryland. "It is the way that the building and the environment work together as an eco-system."



Won't Blow Your

House Down

The Furbish-Bathon house may sound a little flimsy, conjuring up images of the straw hut from the Three Little Pigs. "In reality it is a very heavy house — a fortress," Furbish said.

Furbish, trained as an industrial engineer, said his straw-bale house is a post-and-beam structure with two-foot-thick straw bales fitted in between, about 850 bales in all. The bales are covered with a mix of earth and plaster, forming the inner and outer walls and providing a high level of insulation, making the house efficient in any climate, he said. It also looks like many other homes.

The county feared that mold, fire and pests would undermine the straw-bale structure. However, environmental consultant Sigi Koko of Down to Earth in Arlington, Va., helped the couple provide evidence to back up their request for a building permit.

Furbish said that protecting the straw bales from moisture before encapsulation enables the plaster walls to protect the straw from water and prevent any mold. The tightly packed bales allow no oxygen to seep in, making the earth and plaster walls more fire retardant than a regular house. For rodents, straw bales have no dietary value since the wheat or barley grains have already been removed.

Oriented to take advantage of sunlight, the house uses solar heating in the winter through strategically placed windows. Additional warmth comes from the solar-heated water pipes that run through the concrete floors. Composting toilets reduce the use of potable water and the flow of sewage into the Chesapeake Bay.

"We believe our energy bills are lower than they would be otherwise because the house does not require that much energy to keep it warm," said Furbish. He said he paid an estimated $1,200 to $1,500 in energy bills each year.

Furbish estimates that the completed 2,300-square-foot house cost about $100 per square foot, a total of about $230,000.



Life on the Roof

A living roof of native greenery, installed by Emory Knolls Farms in Harford County, blankets the roof of the Furbish-Bathon porch. Another of the latest in eco-building trends, the concept "goes with the notion of sustainable building," said Furbish. A living roof is simply native plants or grass that cover a roof that would normally be made of tar.

It costs slightly more than a tar roof, but a living roof decreases interior-heating costs in the long run because the roof will be the temperature of grass on a summer day, McGuire noted. "The life of the roof is going to be lengthened under a layer of soil," he said. Benefits include a reduction in storm run-off, making it particularly useful in concrete-covered urban areas. Anne Arundel County has embarked on several projects to install living roofs as a result of the success of the living roof at the County Government Heritage Complex in Annapolis.



Recycled in Howard

Instead of wood, the Village Crest Retail Office Center in Ellicott City has recycled steel for its frame that "might have been a car in another life," said Jared Spahn, president of Old Town Construction. The naturally harvested stone that covers the walls is also a local product. "The goal is to have over 65% of the product used be from within a 65-mile radius of the building," said Spahn, thus reducing energy used for transport. The concrete is also mostly recycled.

Externally, light colors are used for the walls and roof to reflect the ultraviolet rays of the sun and reduce the amount of heat absorption of the building, minimizing the level of air conditioning during the warm months. Spahn said architectural plans from the Baltimore firm of Hord, Coplan and Macht helped to make the site fit in with the rest of the neighborhood.

Village Crest also uses paint, flooring and insulation that are non-toxic and low in volatile compounds to eliminate any concern about the harmful effects of traditional products. "No PVC [polyvinyl chloride] products are being used inside because hundreds of factory workers die each year from the production of PVC," said Spahn.

A dedicated recycling room is located in one corner of the building, and low volume (1.4-gallon) flush toilets and "low-flow" shower facilities are being built in the common area to encourage people to bike to work with the promise of an area to shower and change. There will be special parking spaces for bikes, carpools and hybrid electric cars. The building is scheduled to be ready for tenants on Sept. 1.

Old Town Construction is also working on Waverly Gardens, a $16-million, 102-unit apartment complex for senior citizens. Spahn said, "It will still have a marble foyer and an all-brick exterior, but rent will cost no more than $700 per month because the building is environmentally friendly in meeting LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] standards and so many energy savings have been incorporated." Old Town has other "green" homes and office spaces on the drawing board.

All the concepts used in the Village Crest and Waverly Gardens buildings are fairly simple to implement in creating residential structures, Spahn said. "Many builders are scared to implement these new ideas because it is not the way that their fathers built." But most resource-efficient structures do not look much different than a building using traditional methods.

Howard County is the only county in Maryland to offer a property tax incentive for green construction, and adding solar panels is also becoming increasingly popular because of state tax deductions for residential use.



Cheaper on the Green

The cost advantage of green building brings an additional sparkle to the eyes of advocates. "A building with natural outdoor shading (trees) can enjoy up to 40% less in energy bills," McGuire said. "You would never know the difference until you get your electricity bill."

Although it may cost a little more to implement energy-saving mechanisms, "you get what you pay for," said McGuire, and this is reflected in energy bills. "The [energy] costs are the same low for an office space as for a residence," Spahn noted.

The Columbia-based Enterprise Foundation launched a $550 million Green Communities Initiative last September. "The goal is to change the way people think about affordable, healthy housing," said Sandi Abadinsky Baer, director of public relations and marketing at Enterprise's Green Communities.

The Enterprise Foundation, founded by Jim and Patty Rouse, raises resources to create affordable housing. Barely a year old and "supported by tremendous amounts of interest from local and state governments, the program has already provided 175,000 units of housing," Baer said. Homes are well sited so that families do not need to use cars to travel long distances to work and are built using green building methods to make the homes energy efficient and lower costs for low-income families.


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