Only Beautiful is Sustainable

The best thing I learned at the recent AIA Convention in San Francisco:

'If it's not beautiful, it's not sustainable.'

If the community doesn't embrace a building, the building will not be saved or preserved when the time comes. Unaesthetic buildings will not last and are unsustainable even if they have a LEED rating...

Example:

Mark Miller Toyota, Salt Lake - LEED Gold Rating
I will be the first in line to tear this building down when the time comes. Very unattractive.




Salt Lake Public Library - No LEED Rating
I will be the first in line to preserve this building when the time comes. GORGEOUS - my favorite library of all the cities I've lived in.




So which is the more sustainable building?
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Earth Day 2009 = 1st LDS Green Building

(Rendering source)

I previously posted on the Church History Library registering with the USGBC. And now we have the results of what rating they are going for. And on Earth Day no less. The new Church History Library is aiming to receive a LEED Silver rating. The actual rating won't be given out until a year from now, when the performance results of the building are in. Currently there are only five buildings with a higher rating in all of Utah. This building will now become part of history by becoming the first green building completed by the LDS Church.

“The Church’s commitment to attaining LEED certification for the Church History Library is a reflection of their long-term vision, and it underscores the leadership role the Church plays on so many levels in the community,” said Jim Bradburn, director of Sustainable Services at The RMH Group, a sustainable engineering services firm in Denver. “The forward-looking design and focus on sustainability from the outset made achieving the high professional standards required for certification a fluid part of the process.” (LDS Newsroom)


(Rendering source)

“Improved lighting and indoor air quality allow customers to better use the records and be more comfortable while doing so,” said Brent Thompson, director of Records Preservation for the Church History Department. “More natural light in work areas improves the job satisfaction for employees and missionaries. The community benefits from a well-designed building that looks good in the urban setting while having less impact on the environment.” (LDS Newsroom)

The building’s occupants will experience healthier surroundings because many of the materials used in its construction are low in volatile organic compounds, or VOC, explained Dessa Fountaine of Jacobsen Construction, the company building the Church History Library. “The filters in the mechanical systems eliminate allergens,” Fountaine added. “The wood used comes from forests that are harvested wisely and are replanted. A center will be included in the building to collect paper, plastics and metal products to be recycled. The heating and cooling systems are efficient, thus eliminating waste. The landscaping designs and plumbing items will use less water, and the windows, blinds and insulation will preserve temperatures.” (LDS Newsroom)


(Rendering source)

I will post the LEED scorecard showing the individual credits earned when it is uploaded to the USGBC website. Note: this will not be for another year. Requirements of building commissioning and quantifying the performance of the building will take a year before results and credits are guaranteed. So hopefully on Earth Day 2010 we can celebrate when they place the LEED Silver logo on the building.
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Utah: the greatest snow, I mean pollution, on earth

How noble of the State of Utah to consider taking the pollution and waste away from the world to safeguard and keep with us here in these treasured mountain valleys. We will agree to pollute ourselves, so that you, the world, may remain clean.

What sacrifice.

So send us your carcinogens; your toxic waste; your combustible by-products. Of course it will cost you. But don't worry. We'll use the prostituted money from whoring our land away to help improve our public schools, so you don't need to worry about us or our increased risk of cancer. Utah deserves a great big shout-out for volunteering to be the sacrificial polluted lamb of the world.

Nuclear waste from other foreign countries? Sure. Oil shale from our mountains? Why not. New coke-burning oil refineries? Bring it on. If only President Clinton wouldn't have put such an effort into protecting our land against our wishes. Shame on him! We wanted the chance to pollute southern Utah as well.

Early settlers of Utah spoke about the need to care for and protect the land; to exercise wise stewardship for future generations. Fortunately today, a time when the future of our planet is more perilous and polluted than ever before, we're not concerned about all that. After all, pollution will bring money, jobs, and people here which is a big deal during a down economy. Right?

And so we have Energy Solutions. They own our NBA arena, so they must be great. All they want to do is import nuclear waste from foreign countries into Salt Lake City, that's all. What's the big deal? We should just leave this up to our State Legislators who, I'm sure will do the right ($$) thing.

We also have Consolidated Energy Systems. All they want to do is burn coke, a petroleum product that pollutes more than most forms of coal and emits chemicals that are carcinogenic; all in a residentially-zoned neighborhood. Why should Davis County even care? It's not like anyone would even notice another oil refinery up there. We should just leave this up to our State Legislators who, I'm sure will do the right ($$) thing here also.

So again, thank you to Utah, the Savior of our dying planet, for the willingness to take all of the unpleasant pollution of the world into your borders. We couldn't clean this place up without you...


Other-Worldly by tephdra
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Light Pollution of Bountiful Temple in National Geographic

This afternoon I was in Urgent Care, which as it turns out is anything but urgent. It wasn't for me, but for my wife who injured her ankle on one of our staircases at home. She was carrying the baby when she fell, and fortunately there were no serious injuries. While passing the many hours of waiting, I happened upon the November 2008 issue of National Geographic magazine. The feature article is entitled "Our Vanishing Night" and discusses light pollution throughout the country. I really enjoyed the article and highly recommend it. I was shocked when I got to page 120-121 to see a full two-page image of the Bountiful Utah Temple.

Long-time followers of this blog - both of you - will recall that I did a post on light pollution a year ago where I talked about how the poorly designed lighting of the Temples was adding to the light pollution of our cities. And the image used was of the Bountiful Utah Temple. So out of all the buildings in the country to single out, the National Geographic chose an LDS building for this article. And out of all the LDS buildings in the country, they chose the same building I used to speak about light pollution last year. Even more remarkable is I don't think the Bountiful Temple is any more of a light-polluter than other LDS Temples - I simply chose it as representative of all the others, and because I found such a great image of it. (As a side note, I like the image used in my original post more than the one used in the National Geographic. I think it does a better job capturing the excess light from the Temple.)

So is it even possible that this is just a random coincidence? In my weird little mind, I'd like to think I had something to do with this appearing in the National Geographic. But that, of course, would mean they saw my blog...I'll probably never know, but I can always hope, right? So on to the important stuff:

There were a surprisingly-high four beautiful images representing Utah in the article. It seems excessive, since Utah is not any worse a light-polluter than other states, but at least one of the images showed a beautiful example of no light pollution, while the remaining three showed examples of excessive light pollution.

Here are the four images included from the magazine with the captions below:


Photograph by Jim Richardson
"'Let thy glorious light ever shine upon it,' beseeched the 1995 dedicatory prayer for the Mormon temple in Bountiful, Utah. Plenty of earthly light bathes the granite structure, its brilliance exaggerated by a long photo exposure."



Photograph by Jim Richardson
"As if admiring a sunset, Balanced Rock in Arches National Park, Utah, basks in the glow of the town of Moab—with about 5,000 residents—less than ten miles away."



Photograph by Jim Richardson
"The electric blush of Salt Lake City, more than a hundred miles away, brushes the horizon over Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats."


And finally the positive one, showing us the goal of what we can return to. In my opinion, we shouldn't have to go to a National Park to see this kind of spectacular sky.


Photograph by Jim Richardson
"A starry night gleams above Owachomo Bridge in Utah's Natural Bridges National Monument—named the first Dark Sky Park by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). 'Here you see something forgotten,' says ranger Scott Ryan, 'and reconnect with the sky.'"

One of my favorite quotes from the article states, "Of all the pollutions we face, light pollution is perhaps the most easily remedied."
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A Prophet’s View

I spent much of yesterday inside the condo of the late President Hinckley. It will shortly be remodeled for President Monson to use. In a way, it was quite surreal to be in the rooms where the Hinckley’s slept, bathed, ate, entertained, and ultimately died. The room where I was surprisingly touched and drawn to the most was the master bedroom. According to KUTV News, it was here that President Hinckley was bedridden for the last four days of his life.



The views all around are spectacular. The layout of the President’s Office is such that there is a window on the side with a view of the State Capital and French doors in front of the desk with a view of the Temple. Apparently President Hinckley used to state that he would look to his right for taxation and he would look straight ahead for inspiration.
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Thank you Rush Limbaugh

The local news last night shared the story of the One World Everybody Eats Cafe in Salt Lake and how Rush Limbaugh attacked it during his show because they are a not-for-profit restaurant. It’s true the restaurant model is very different than others. They let people choose their own portions and then pay what they feel it’s worth. The vision statement includes goals of feeding and including all members of the community, only using organic unprocessed food, eliminating waste in the food industry, and ending world hunger. I simply ask – what is so wrong with this? You can choose not to eat there, but is there anything wrong with a place that has lofty ideals for bettering our community? He stated in his broadcast,

“I’m probably doing more for the One World Café than anybody possibly could. I’m sure there’s people in Salt Lake that listen to this program and despise me and hear me making fun of this humanitarian effort here that it’s an embarrassment to American business and they’re going to go flood the place now and make sure that it stays open. I’m giving them free advertising. They’ll probably overpay for what they’re getting…I doubt that. Liberals don’t go that far. They still want other people’s money to pay for what they do and what they get. But they’ll still stream in there to show a measure of support…” (Rush Limbaugh radio program 10 Nov 2008)

He’s right there. My curiosity was killing me so I had to try it out during lunch today. I thought the food was delicious and the service very friendly. Seeing as how Rush Limbaugh has never been there, I’m not sure how he can say the following,

“I don’t want [beef from Allen Brothers] wasted on a bunch of long-haired maggot-infested dope-smoking FM types walking in to the One World Café.” (Rush Limbaugh radio program 10 Nov 2008)

Interestingly, the idea for the restaurant began with an epiphany. Denise Cerreta developed the café to nourish both the body and the soul. She began the restaurant in 2003 and, “After a couple of months, and a lot of mental anguish, she had an encounter with the divine. She calls it inspiration from a higher power, her own ‘Field of Dreams’ experience, where she ‘just knew’ if she followed it, customers would come…It told her to get rid of her price board and cash register and let customers decide how much to pay for their food…‘I think we all have that ability’ to hear a prompting from a higher source. ‘But I don't think we listen to it.’” (source)

According to the Deseret News, the café doesn’t even do any type of advertising. “Her clientele has simply grown by word of mouth.” Why would she need to do any advertising when she has Rush Limbaugh advertising for her for free…so thanks for lunch Rush, I guess God really does move in mysterious ways…


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UTA is Encouraging Sprawl

Despite their best intentions, the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) is encouraging sprawl with the bus system they have in place. The culprit: Express and Fast buses. The past several months I have been using the Express Bus to get to and from Lehi each day. While I was the beneficiary of a fast bus with no stops and a relatively short commute for living so far away, I came to the realization that this approach to public transit is not in the best interest of the people of Utah.

UTA currently has twenty nine Express/Fast bus routes that come from the outer ring suburbs to the center while skipping the first and second ring suburbs. As a result, many transit commutes are shorter from the outer suburbs than from the inner suburbs. The current system says to me “UTA would rather have you live in Lehi than Sugarhouse.”

One solution is the approach Portland, Oregon uses which places Transit Centers at various locations of the inner suburbs. This allows people in the outer rings to catch a bus that takes them to the inner ring Transit Center. From there they transfer to a line that goes to the center, or downtown. This allows everyone to use transit but gives the penalty in time and transfers to those further out. It also gives more flexibility allowing people to get around at times other than commute times. Thirty nine of UTA’s bus routes currently only run during commute hours. This becomes very problematic when emergencies arise or people need to travel home at non-commute times.

1402 Blair St by Liberty Park – 23 minutes – 1 transfer – 2.69 miles
2378 Blaine Ave in SugarHouse – 47 minutes – 1 transfer – 5.84 miles
3846 Knudsen St in East Millcreek – 48 minutes – 1 transfer – 11.2 miles
3492 Sunnybrook Dr in West Valley – 44 minutes – 1 transfer – 11.31 miles
3528 Mystic Way in Magna – 51 minutes – 1 transfer – 15.08 miles
452 Stephanie Circle in Sandy – 57 minutes – 1 transfer – 15.81 miles
1186 N 500 W Lehi – 50 minutes – 0 transfers – 28.41 miles
378 N 100 E in Tooele – 1 hour 12 minutes – 0 transfers – 33.36 miles

For my unscientific study above, all addresses were chosen at random in various cities that UTA serves and had the same destination of 50 E North Temple. All used the same departure time of a weekday at 7:00am. The only randomly-chosen addresses that were excluded were those that UTA’s Trip Planner could not compute (more than 1/4 mile walking or more than 3 hours travel. Side note: it would be nice to have the option of increasing the walking portion of the Trip Planner to 1/2 mile.)

As you can see, a commute from SugarHouse is an equivalent time to a commute from Lehi or Magna. And since Lehi, Magna, and Tooele have no transfers, the commute is more desirable than Sugarhouse or East Millcreek since there are no transfers (who wants to get out in the snow multiple times?)

While this is only a small sampling, it shows that there are many locations that UTA serves where it is easier and faster to use public transit from living farther out rather than closer in. Is this really the message UTA wants to send? I don’t know about other people, but I used the UTA Trip Planner site more than any other site to aid in choosing which home to buy here in Utah. The Express/Fast bus system is telling people that you may have a shorter commute if you move out further. In spite of this critique, great improvements are being made with additional rail lines and transit options by UTA. With these upcoming changes, I just hope they will reconsider the current bus system and move towards a Transit Center approach.
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2/3 Utah Park & Rides are LDS parking lots

Until we sell our house and permanently settle here in Utah, I am temporarily staying with family in Lehi and taking an Express Bus in to downtown Salt Lake for work. In searching for transit options on UTA’s website, I have discovered a large number of LDS parking lots that are being used for Park and Ride stops since they lie on transit lines. In fact, two out of every three park & ride lots are at LDS Meetinghouses according to the list on Utah Transit Authority's (UTA) website.


Park & Ride off State Street in Lehi from Google Map Street View

Number of LDS parking lots used as Park & Ride lots:
Davis County – 10
Weber County – 4
Tooele County – 3
Utah County – 12
Salt Lake County – 64

From these five counties, 90 total LDS parking lots are being used out of 136 total Park & Ride sites listed. These are all adjacent to bus lines. I can’t speak about all of them, but the lots in and around Lehi are completely full by 7:00am. From the website, the only lot with any strings attached is in Orem where a special permit is required by the Sunset Heights Stake in order to park there. The others are open to anyone and first come-first serve. In addition to the bus lines, there are also three LDS parking lots in Sandy that are allowed for public use which are adjacent to the light rail (TRAX).

The following rules apply for LDS Church parking lots: “Only those lots listed on UTA’s website have been approved for use as a park & ride facility...Park and ride use of this lot is permitted by the property owner as a courtesy to UTA patrons. Your cooperation is sincerely appreciated and will make the continued use of this lot possible.” Additionally, users cannot park for more than 24 hours or on Sundays.

This is a fabulous shared use of resources since most LDS parking lots sit empty during the week. I am glad to see so many LDS meetinghouses built along these transit lines and I am also glad that the Church allows commuters to use them during the work week. This not only helps free up traffic and congestion on the roads, but also lessens pollution by encouraging transit use.
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The Wall at Temple Square

I just finished a very enjoyable first week of work at the Church Office Building. On Friday while walking around downtown during lunch, I came to the realization that the wall surrounding Temple Square should be removed. It reminds me of a freeway sound wall and feels just as oppressive if you're walking the city sidewalks on the "wall side" of the street. You can't see any of the Church buildings, there is nothing of interest to engage you, and with the large size of Salt Lake City blocks, I found myself never wanting to walk on that side of the street again.

The interesting thing is that Temple Square was originally conceived by Brigham Young to be 40 acres in size with the Temple at the Center (source). Instead it ended up being the size of a city block, which is 10 acres. Now, in 2008, when you look at the Conference Center, the new Church History Library, Relief Society Building, Church Office Building, Joseph Smith Memorial Building, Administration Building, Lion House, Beehive House, Family History Library, and Museum of Church History and Art - how are these buildings different than the Assembly Hall, the two Visitor Centers, or the Tabernacle? In reality, Temple Square as we know it is expanding and has been expanding for a long time. Brigham Young was right on with his 40-acre plan. When the new Church History Library is complete, the Church Headquarters complex will encompass almost exactly 40 acres of land spread over five city blocks.


Aerial image of Temple Square from Google Maps

Historic preservation concerns
Temple Square is surrounded by a high, granite wall that was built shortly after the block was designated for the building of the temple. It was built to protect machinery during construction of the Temple and was never intended to create a monastic enclave. And it is not the original wall that was built. "The surrounding wall became the first permanent structure on what has become known as Temple Square. It was begun in 1852 as a make-work project for the new arrivals and those on their way to the gold fields in California. It later served to protect the machinery used in the construction of buildings on the temple grounds. The wall is a uniform fifteen feet high but varies in appearance because of the southwest slope of the site. It was constructed of adobe brick with a protective sandstone cap and foundation. The bricks were plastered in order to shield them from the elements. With the passage of time, however, the wall had to be rebuilt because of the gradual deterioration of the original materials. Great care has gone into its reconstruction to retain its original appearance." (source) Even though it is no longer the original wall, in my opinion it would be nice to save a portion of the wall for historical purposes that visitors and tourist groups could view.


Site plan of Temple Square 1893

Security concerns
Instead of a wall keeping people out, the buildings could act as a walled boundary, with see-through gates remaining at the entrances. Regarding the entrances, to help make the large city blocks more walkable and pedestrian friendly, the City Creek Center is splitting up each city block into four smaller quadrant blocks. Essentially this is what Temple square block does as well, with the main entrances at the four midpoints of the block.

In a way, the wall within a city is an anti-urban statement. Historically, a large wall was the threshold that defined the city from the country as well as providing security from enemies. Anything outside of the wall was not part of the city. Even though not intended, a walled-off religious complex at the center of a city is telling the public that we don't want you in here - stay out. This message conflicts with the open spirit the missionaries on Temple Square invite people in. The Vatican currently has a 110 acre city surrounded by a wall in the center of Rome. For a comparison to Salt Lake, this would only make sense if the wall were reconfigured to surround the entire 40 acre complex rather than just a single city block.


Vatican map of walled city

The goal would be buildings that engage the street - for both pedestrians and vehicles; buildings that face outward rather than inward. The Visitor Center buildings can and should invite you into Temple Square. Open lines of sight should exist that allow the public to see the beauty of the grounds and instill a desire to enter. The adjacent City Creek Center will bring even more people in close proximity to Temple Square, and a wall is not the way to invite people to learn more about the Church.

Of the four walls surrounding Temple Square, only the East side has been opened up. It is now as much a gate as a wall. The new Main Street Plaza has helped this boundary of Temple Square erode away which is a good thing. On this Eastern wall we are opening ourselves up more to the world. We have nothing to hide, and we want the world to see that. Removing the rest of the wall around Temple Square would go a long way towards furthering our mission to share ourselves with the world. - especially since it is the most visited site in all of Utah and the center of activity for all the Church.

While it may have historical value since it has been up so long, I believe it is sending the wrong message and not engaging the public with who we are. It shuts out the idea of an active urban center, which is one of the goals of the Church with the new City Creek Center. The wall, or at least the buildings and visitor centers adjacent to the sidewalk are a great opportunity to share the gospel and the message of who we are at the street level with the city and with the public. Let's move out of the pioneer days, while retaining a portion of the wall to remember its existence, and knock down the wall surrounding Temple Square.
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The Answer is Blowin' in the Wind

Spanish Fork Windmills by Dan McLean

The State of Utah has its first commercial wind farm and it is located at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon, one of the windiest areas in Utah. While an undergraduate student, I framed homes for a summer and one of those homes was in Spanish Fork. We started at 7am each day and, as I recall, it took all my strength to maneuver a single 4’x8’ sheet of plywood through the wind and into place on the framing. Apparently the strongest wind usually blows through the canyon from about 11pm to 10am. I drove through the canyon this past July and was blown away by the size of the nine windmills which will be up and running by September. Each windmill contains a 2.1-megawatt turbine that is expected to produce enough electricity to power 600 homes. There are nine windmills in the canyon for a total of 18.9 megawatts. (source)

The children at nearby Spanish Oaks Elementary School report that each windmill blade is 147 feet long, with the total diameter at 350 feet. Additionally, the tips will travel at 170 mph. The children conclude, “We should all be thankful for these windmills, they produce more energy and less pollution, we need more and more electricity each day, these windmills are a great thing, and they are also beautiful.” (source)


Windmills at night by Robert's Random Adventure Tours

According to Suzlon Energy, the manufacturer of the windmills, “The world of wind power is growing at a phenomenal pace. Projections put the average growth of the industry at 24% for the next five years.” The National Renewable Energy Laboratory states, “Wind is a clean, inexhaustible, indigenous energy resource that can generate enough electricity to power millions of homes and businesses. Wind energy is one of the fastest-growing forms of electricity generation in the world. The United States can currently generate more than 10,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity from the wind, which is enough to power 2.5 million average American homes. Industry experts predict that, with proper development, wind energy could provide 20% of this nation's energy needs.”


A diverse energy portfolio includes wind and sun power to create electricity - Image by swilsonmc

Rocky Mountain Power is purchasing the energy output from these windmills. According to their website, Rocky Mountain Power is committed to diversifying its renewable resources, which is especially important in Utah. Sarah Wright, executive director of Utah Clean Energy, compares diversification of energy to diversifying an investment portfolio. She said that Utah's energy isn't currently diverse because 95 percent comes from coal.

Unrelated to the wind power, another good point about the windmills is the specific site location chosen. The site was previously mined as a gravel pit. This reuse of the site helps lessen the development of new untouched land.


Image by Josh at 'What's Hip Hapnin?'

To kick off the start of the windmills, Spanish Fork is hosting a wind power celebration this weekend entitled Sky Spectacular. Included is a ribbon-cutting of the new wind farm turbines, the first Spanish Fork Kite Festival, and a “Go Green” Expo highlighting green businesses and products. It begins this Friday and continues Saturday.


Windmill panorama at dusk by swilsonmc
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Moving to Utah

Church Office Building from Conference Center Roof

This site will be slower than usual for at least the next month. I have accepted a position at the LDS Church and will be moving from Portland to Salt Lake City. This was a very difficult decision, since I never planned on, or really desired to, live in Utah. (Hey, even the pioneers didn't want to live there.) Settling here in Portland was part of a "perfect plan" to live here and raise the children. But apparently the Lord has other plans for me. As I prayed about this decision, the answer came that it is not the life I choose for myself that's important, but the life that God chooses for me. And while I love Portland and will have a hard time leaving, I believe that this decision is an inspired one and will ultimately be beneficial for my family, my career, and hopefully for the Church. I am excited to be able to work at the center of Church Headquarters and plan to make a positive difference and contribution there.

Now it's time to finish the bathroom, sell the home, and find a new home in the Salt Lake Valley...

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Nature and the City in Synagogue Design

Exterior Elevations

Alfred Jacoby, one of the most famous Jewish architects in Germany, has designed his first synagogue in the United States and it was dedicated in Park City, Utah last week. Temple Har Shalom, meaning Mountain of Peace in Hebrew, was designed to coexist with nature in the midst of this high mountain desert. With the Jewish community in Utah being different from the congregations in Germany, "Instead of a discourse with history, in Park City Jacoby's discourse was with nature." The synagogue has clean, simple lines and sanctuaries full of natural light. The ceiling undulates, suggestive of the mountains on the other side of the stained glass windows. (source) "The floor-to-ceiling windows reveal beautiful vistas on two floors, which include a conference room and classrooms that will be available to the community." (source)

While Temple Har Shalom has a site ‘in nature’ on the periphery of Park City, the synagogues in Germany are more integrated with city life. German synagogues, in cities such as Aachen and Heidelberg, are noticeable and inviting, with large entrances "to invite you in, as a gesture," Jacoby said. (source)

It hasn't always been this way though. "In the years following the Holocaust, Jewish communities in Germany — made up of displaced Jews from other countries, since the German Jewish population had been decimated — began building synagogues to replace the ones destroyed by the Nazis. These new synagogues often were hidden away and were generally so nondescript they looked like cafeterias, says Jacoby…The idea, even three or four decades after the end of World War II, was to try not to be noticed. But in 1986, when Jacoby won an architectural competition to design a new synagogue in Darmstadt, he tried a different approach: ‘to show that Jews can be part of a city.’" (source)

In 2000, there was a wave of neofascist vandalism sweeping through Germany. "But the possibility of vandalism hasn't stopped him from designing synagogues that make their presence known. ‘I want them to be part of the urban fabric,’ he said, ‘to heal with architecture.’" (source) Being open and inviting to the community in a synagogue in Kassel included placing the sacred Torah scrolls inside of a glass box that could be seen by anyone walking or driving past the building.

"Ultimately, what this institution is about is relationships. Whether it's your relationship with God or a spiritual relationship or relationship with another human being, it's about relationships, enhancing relationships, and making the lives of Utahns better." (source)


Exterior Rendering
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How Does the LDS Church feel about Sustainability?

The sound bites in the video are from Bill Williams, director of architecture and engineering for City Creek Reserve, Inc. These are posted on the LDS Newsroom site, and below is the transcribed text of his words:

"When you think about sustainability it’s beyond just green roofs, if you will. But those, in and of itself are probably the most visible because as you rise up in an office building instead of looking down on black tar you see something that’s growing. And what that does for us, is it captures rainwater, it absorbs it so it doesn’t run into the streams at a rapid rate and erode, it cools the building itself because green roofs have a natural cooling ability; shade, things like that."

"As a Church we have always been interested in sustainable efforts. We’ve never sought for public attention in that regard, but sustainable efforts from a Church-wide is something that is just prudent because it means we pay less over a long term for our structures and for our buildings, especially in terms of maintenance and operating costs. So it’s just a prudent thing to do."

"It illustrates that we truly uphold these values; that we try to be good stewards of whatever we do. And that we try to give back to the community. We don’t take from the community, but we give in terms of our time, our efforts, service. But we also look at the environment and say we’re going to be here for a long time. We’d like to ensure that there is a future and it’s a future that we all like and so we participate in the sustainability effort that is going around the country."


(City Creek Center)


(City Creek Center)

Source credits in the video are as follows:

Conference Center:
Flickr user bsmart - Green Rooftop of the LDS Conference Center
Flickr user - New LDS mormon Conference Center
Utah.com article - Atop a New Monument, an Ancient Forest
Greenroofs.com database - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Conference Center
Flickr user jonnojohnson - IMG_4638 and IMG_4630

City Creek:
Callison
LDS Newsroom
Wikipedia - City Creek Condominium Tower


(Conference Center by deanrich_99)
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Sierra Club praises LDS Church

As the Deseret News reported today, the LDS Church has received recognition for the City Creek Center in the first national report by the Sierra Club on communities of faith entitled “Faith in Action: Communities of Faith Bring Hope for the Planet.”

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is helping revitalize downtown Salt Lake City, and it’s doing so in a green manner. City Creek Reserve, Inc. (CCRI), a real estate development arm of the church, is directing the construction of a transit-oriented, 20-acre mixed use project which will include residential, retail and office space. The results from this smart growth strategy will greatly reduce Salt Lake City's dependence on the automobile.”



Apparently more than half of the demolition debris is being recycled and only native plant species will be used for landscaping. But here is the money quote that has given me a huge permagrin today:

“The decision to pursue LEED certification was a natural outflow of the values of the LDS faith. CCRI Director of Architecture and Engineering Bill Williams says long term sustainability is central to the project. ‘As you look at the tenets of our religion, there is a notion that we must be good stewards in all that we do,’ explains Williams. ‘It is our hope that this project will be prosperous, while standing true to our values of wise stewardship and giving back to the community.’ Williams and the CCRI designers hope this project will be a catalyst for further neighborhood redevelopment, noting that it allows residents and visitors to celebrate the unique natural beauty and rich history of Salt Lake City.”


Bill Williams

It is enormously refreshing to hear the director of the Church Architecture and Engineering department speak in terms of stewardship, values, community, and sustainability. This is a great day for Mormon environmentalists everywhere.

Every state is represented, so check out the full report and see what religious groups in your state are doing to help protect and preserve the environment.
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A Field Guide to Sprawl: LULU

Utah State Prison at Draper by jimjohnson13

This post features another of the fifty-one common building patterns defined in the book "A Field Guide to Sprawl" by Dolores Hayden. The Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah is a LULU, or ‘Locally Unwanted Land Use’. A LULU "creates a problem for people because of the way it looks, smells, sounds, or pollutes the environment…Protests against LULUs in newly developing areas with affluent residents may force them to remote locations, thus causing leapfrog development, which advances sprawl. LULUs often wind up located in communities without the political clout to resist them, including poor communities and ones inhabited by people of color." (page 64)


(Deseret Morning News graphic)

This past February, the Salt Lake County and the Draper City Council both passed a resolution asking the state to reconsider moving the prison. When built in 1951, the 700-acre prison was out in the rural landscape of the county, nowhere near the city. Now fifty years later, people actually live in Draper, and they don’t want to live next to prisoners. "If you're going to move the prison, you only want to do it once," said Draper City Manager Eric Keck. (source) Interestingly, I’m sure this was also said back in 1951 when the prison was moved to Draper from Sugarhouse. What he really meant is he only wants the prison to move out of Draper once.


Utah State Prison in the 1950's (Deseret Morning News Archive)

"Campaigns against LULUs are also called NIMBY (not in my backyard), BANANA (build absolutely nothing anywhere near), and NOPE (not on planet earth)." (Hayden, page 64) In spite of this, Draper Council member Jeff Stenquist is quoted as saying, "This is not a case of Draper City not wanting the prison in our backyard. Moving the prison, and claiming that land for a higher-level economic use, would benefit the entire community - Utah County, Salt Lake County and the entire state." (source) So it’s a benefit to the entire state simply by not being in Draper? How does that even make sense?


2005 aerial image by Photographic Solutions

If the city and county have their way, it will only be a matter of time before the prison is moved, which brings up the concern of where they want to move it. According to Steve Gehrke of the Salt Lake Tribune, County Councilman Jeff Allen is looking at Grantsville or the Salt Lake Valley’s West Bench. Additionally, "past rumors have focused on Tooele and Sanpete counties." (source)


Mapquest aerial image showing Grantsville, Tooele, and the West Bench

Moving the prison further into the rural countryside will greatly impact more than the 1200 employees and 1500 volunteers who work at the prison day and night. "Moving the prison farther out from downtown amenities like courts and hospitals may also add heavy travel costs to provide for the needs and rights of the prisoners", said Department of Corrections spokesman Jack Ford. Additionally, about 20 to 30 inmates are taken to Salt Lake hospitals each day. And most importantly this will further distance the prisoners from family and friends, resulting in fewer visits. "Positive relationships can help inmates change and are one of the key factors in deciding if an inmate gets parole," said Board of Pardons and Parole member Don Blanchard. (source)

All these support people will have to follow the prison into the next rural setting, building up the rural location into more sprawl. What is not realized is that the prison will be a LULU no matter where it is put, and the further you put it from where people live, the worse you make it for the thousands who work at, volunteer at, provide food for, visit, or otherwise support the prison. So the LULU cycle just keeps repeating itself, and nothing is ever learned…where sprawl is called progress and poorly planned growth is always good.
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Downtown Salt Lake Mall Officially Green

Image from Wikipedia

City Creek Center
Six buildings from the new two block mixed-use development in Salt Lake City have been registered with the US Green Building Council. The project is being developed by City Creek Reserve, Inc., an affiliate of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Buildings 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 have all been individually registered under the ‘New Construction’ rating system. Each building will eventually receive its own LEED rating.

City Creek Center Registered Buildings:
#1 (330,000 sf)
#2 (149,000 sf)
#4 (45,000 sf)
#5 (230,000 sf)
#6 & #7 (200,000 sf)
(All Registered in Jan 2008)

Additionally, the 20-acre City Creek Center has been registered under the new ‘Neighborhood Development’ pilot program. Being a part of the Pilot program for neighborhoods will allow the project to be a case study in developing urban neighborhoods around the country. Administered by a joint venture of the Congress for New Urbanism, the US Green Building Council, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, LEED-ND is a powerful environmental strategy, encouraging sustainability at the scale of neighborhoods and communities.

"The most powerful strategy for achieving environmental sustainability is incorporating high-performance buildings in compact, mixed-use neighborhoods that reduce driving by making walking and transit attractive options for commuting and other trips." (source)

Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council said the expanded focus on green communities is important. "The future of green building is to think beyond just buildings, by addressing important issues like density development, community infrastructure, resource availability, and encouraging a healthy lifestyle. LEED for Neighborhood Development is an important and exciting step towards transforming the marketplace to create a healthy and sustainable future." (source)

One of the Residential towers, at 126 meters tall, will be two meters shy of the tallest building in the State of Utah. Completion is expected in mid-2011.

29 Feb 2008 Image from Downtown Rising

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LDS Church Registers for LEED Certification

Image from Deseret News

Church History Library
The 250,000 square foot Church History Library, now under construction, is registered with the US Green Building Council. (source) To the best of my knowledge, this is the first building owned by the LDS Church to be registered for a Green Building certification.

This doesn’t guarantee any specific rating, but simply means that the paperwork and money have been submitted. Once construction is completed, the point total will determine the overall rating achieved, with a basic Certification being the lowest and Platinum being the highest. Originally to be finished in late 2007, the new library will be completed in summer 2009.

Photo by JerTheAnderson

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Salt Lake saves eight tons of CO2 with the warmth of sewage

Photo by Graham Murdoch

Case Study: Heating Homes from Waste

"When Salt Lake City attorneys Jon and Phillip Lear decided to set up offices in the Major George Downey mansion downtown in 2005, gas prices had spiked after Hurricane Katrina, and they started brainstorming alternative heating and cooling systems.

'Alternative' is the word for what the brothers came up with. The system they designed, with help from engineers at Utah’s Sound Geothermal Corporation, pulls heat from warm sewage water. A secondary network of pipes surrounding a sewage pipe carries a water-based glycol that enables a heat exchange—since it is cool relative to the sewage water, it rapidly absorbs heat. The pipes carry the warmed glycol back into the house, where the accumulated heat energy radiates from vents. On hot summer days, the glycol absorbs heat from inside the house and releases it underground. The entire setup uses about 40 percent less energy than a conventional heating and cooling system would, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by eight tons a year. The Lears moved their offices there permanently in January.

Public-utilities director Jeff Niermeyer hopes to install similar systems in other public buildings within the next few years. 'With any wastewater system, there’s a lot of heat that you’ve already put in for other purposes,' he says." (Popular Science Case Study)

For more information, see also the Deseret News article on this home which speaks of the potential to use this technology on the City Creek Center in Salt Lake.

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Utah leads California in LEED Buildings per capita

While California may lead the country with the most number of Green Cities (13 of the Top 50), many other Western states are outperforming them in number of Green Buildings per capita. New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Hawaii, and Colorado, all have higher percentages of LEED buildings than California. Additionally, the Pacific Northwest leads the way and is by far the strongest Green sector in the West.

The following are a list of Western States with the corresponding numbers of LEED buildings that are Certified. There may be others in process, or simply Registered, but this only includes those projects that have completed the process. Below this are State populations, followed by state per capita rankings.

LEED Certified buildings by State (as of Mar 10, 2008):
California - 161
Washington - 81
Oregon - 69
Colorado - 45
Arizona - 34
Utah - 14
New Mexico - 10
Hawaii - 9
Nevada - 8
Idaho - 6
Montana – 4
Alaska - 2
Wyoming - 1

State populations:
California - 36,553,215
Washington - 6,395,798
Arizona - 6,338,755
Colorado - 4,861,515
Oregon - 3,747,455
Utah - 2,645,330
Nevada - 2,565,382
New Mexico - 1,969,915
Idaho - 1,499,402
Hawaii - 1,283,388
Montana - 957,861
Alaska - 683,478
Wyoming - 522,830

Dividing the population by number of LEED buildings yields some interesting discoveries in which seven Western States are outperforming California percentage-wise:

1-Oregon – 1841
2-Washington – 1266
3-Colorado – 926
4-Hawaii - 701
5-Arizona – 536
6-Utah – 529
7-New Mexico - 508
8-California - 440
9-Montana - 418
10-Idaho - 400
11-Nevada – 312
12-Alaska - 293
13-Wyoming - 191
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America’s 50 Greenest Cities (and Salt Lake made the list!)

Last month Popular Science ranked all US cities over 100,000 people. The intent was to highlight those cities who are 'anxiously engaged' rather than waiting to be compelled by the Federal Government. Coming in at #36 is Salt Lake City, Utah; just ahead of Pasadena, California and just behind Kansas City, Missouri.

#36 Salt Lake City, Utah - 13.5
Electricity – 3.6
Transportation – 4.1
Green Living – 2.3
Recycling/Perspective – 3.5

"In everything from emissions control to environmental stewardship, cities across the country are far ahead of the federal government, and they’re achieving their successes with ready-made technology." (source) Three of the top seven cities are in the Bay Area of California. Additionally, three of the top eight cities are in the Pacific Northwest. About half of the Top 50 cities are in the Western US.

Looking at Salt Lake’s scores as a percentage tells us Salt Lake is scoring weakest in the area of Renewable Energy sources and strongest in recycling and environmental awareness.
Electricity – 3.6/10.0 = .36
Transportation – 4.1/10.0 = .41
Green Living – 2.3/5.0 = .46
Recycling/Perspective – 3.5/5.0 = .70

Scoring was lumped into four broad categories:
Electricity (E; 10 points): Cities score points for drawing their energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar, biomass and hydroelectric power, as well as for offering incentives for residents to invest in their own power sources, like roof-mounted solar panels.
Transportation (T; 10 points): High scores go to cities whose commuters take public transportation or carpool. Air quality also plays a role.
Green living (G; 5 points): Cities earn points for the number of buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, as well as for devoting area to green space, such as public parks and nature preserves.
Recycling and green perspective (R; 5 points): This measures how comprehensive a city’s recycling program is (if the city collects old electronics, for example) and how important its citizens consider environmental issues.

Other cities of interest scoring a perfect score in the main categories:
Electricity – Eugene, OR 10.0
Transportation – New York, NY 10.0
Green Living – Chicago, IL 5.0
Recycling/Perspective – Lexington, KY 5.0
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